Hamilton blames Mercedes: “I took the lead”

A few years ago, it was seen in Belgian F1 GP it would have been impossible. But the things inside Mercedes has changed to Lewis Hamilton. He shocked the team by announcing that he would be leaving for Ferrari at the end of this season and since then, he has lost any favored treatment and leadership that he had gained in recent years. The present and future of Mercedes is George Russell. And in Belgian GP It is very clear.

Lewis Hamilton led the race against Leclerc, Piastri and a Russell 4th, they all have hard rubber. But on lap 25, Leclerc stopped and Mercedes He chose to defend himself against Charles by stopping Lewis even though the star’s car should have been doing better. On the other hand, George Russell stayed on the track and did not stop, giving him the lead. Hamilton was putting pressure on George in the final laps, but Russell defended himself well and won the victory in a key strategy.

However, after the race the FIA ​​announced that Russell did not comply with the regulations in his car and was disqualified, handing the victory back to Lewis.

However, when Lewis Hamilton spoke to the media, he still did not know that Russell would be disqualified. And after being second on the track before the last-minute change, he blamed the team for its approach, which initially gave victory to his teammate in an event that Hamilton dominated without complications.

“I’m really happy for the team, you can’t deny that feeling. We didn’t expect to do a one-two here this weekend because our performance on Friday was terrible, we had a real concern and the car was not believable now. I was in the lead today, I managed the tires without a problem, but the team stopped me. It’s definitely not the best feeling that it ended this way because it didn’t have to end here. disappointing”he revealed in statements to ‘DAZN’.

“Going to a stop? It’s something that was discussed. But we didn’t discuss the order of the cars,” Hamilton added.

Russell made the difference: the idea was his

George Russell also defined his strategy when he spoke to the press.

“It was not contemplated at all. We even considered 3 stops. We didn’t consider one stop. But with every lap we did, the track had more grip and the tires got better. In the first 10 laps, we didn’t stop. possible because The breakdown is bad, but it gets better and better, and suddenly I said to the team: ‘think about just one stop.’ We did it and what a race…” Russell explained to ‘DAZN’.

In that sense, he thanked Mercedes for allowing him to fight Lewis Hamilton at the tight end where George defended himself against his teammate, where Piastri was dangerous from third place.

“First of all, we must recognize the great race that Lewis has done. The way in which he controlled the race… Of course, it will be difficult for him to digest, but the team has always let us compete, it has always been like that. And Lewis and I have a lot of respect for each other and we always put the team first,” concluded Russell, happy for his third F1 victory, the second in 2024. A few hours later, the FIA ​​picked him up for a violation on his car.