Lewis Hamilton earned his 105th Formula One victory at the Belgian Grand Prix after initial race winner George Russell was disqualified.
Lewis Hamilton being told to “give each other a lot of space” when chasing George Russell was “unnecessary” from Mercedes, says former F1 boss Peter Windsor.
The Brit initially came second in Sunday’s (July 28) race, with his Mercedes team-mate claiming his second win in four races.
However, the 39-year-old’s second-place finish was upgraded to a race win after Russell was disqualified following a post-race FIA investigation.
The probe found that his car was under the minimum weight required when it was checked after the race.
It was a tough pill to swallow for the 26-year-old who raced superbly despite having just one pitstop and had to fend off his team-mate in the final laps of the race at Spa.
While the pair were allowed to race in the closing laps, Hamilton was instructed by his senior race engineer Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington to “give each other a lot of space’ when chasing Russell, a message that former Formula One manager Windsor believes was “unnecessary” and should have been directed at Russell instead.
He also suspected it may have had an impact on Hamilton in the closing stages of the race.
At that stage of the race, I don’t think Lewis had to be told that and maybe that affected his aggression a little.”
The disqualification erased what would have been Mercedes’ first 1-2 since Brazil in 2022, as chief Toto Wolff apologised to Russell for the team’s error, which saw the Brit miss out on the third race win of his Formula 1 career.
“We have to take our disqualification on the chin,” the Austrian stated.
We have clearly made a mistake and need to ensure we learn from it.
To lose a 1-2 is frustrating and we can only apologise to George who drove such a strong race.
“Lewis was the fastest guy on the two-stop and is a deserving winner.
