Belgian GP “still a win” for George Russell as DSQ factors revealed

George Russell has detailed some of the factors behind his heartbreaking post-race disqualification at the F1 Belgian Grand Prix.

A one-stopping Russell fended off a late attack from teammate Lewis Hamilton to head a Mercedes 1-2 last time out at Spa-Francorchamps, only to be stripped of the victory after his car was found to be 1.5kg underweight.

Ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, Russell said a combination of factors were to blame for the exclusion.

Asked if he’s confident the team now understand exactly what happened, Russell responded: “Yeah, absolutely. Clearly, we didn’t do a good enough job.

“I lost a bit more weight during the race than we thought, the tyres lost a lot more than we expected, the plank was wearing more than we thought as well.

“So it was sort of these three or four factors all coming together that just pushed us over the edge.”

The 26-year-old Briton also revealed he knew he had been impacted by personal weight loss.

“I don’t think you need to take more margin. I think the processes weren’t quite in place to cover all the different scenarios,” he explained..

“I knew before the race that I was a little bit light, but it was too late to make a substantial change without eating a steak or something, which was probably not the best pre-race routine!

“But there are things that now, with the benefit of hindsight, we can do better and we will be doing better moving forward. As always, you need to make a mistake first until you recognise there’s a problem.”

Despite the disqualification, Russell still considers the Belgian Grand Prix to be “a win”.

“Of course, it’s very frustrating that the one time in three years we’ve been just under the weight limit was the race we won, but there’s zero hard feelings,” he said. “We’re in this together and it will make us stronger for the future.

“I lost 25 points, but in my mind, that is still a win. I’ve kept my helmet and it’s going to be going on my bedside table with my other two victories.

"Those celebrations I had with the team in that moment straight after [the race] were some of the best feelings of my career, so I’ll only take positives from what happened.”