George Russell is disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix
George Russell's Belgian Grand Prix went from heroics to heartbreak after he was disqualified from his second race win of the season.
Russell's strategic gamble led to him crossing the line in first place however an underweight car meant he was stripped of his third career victory which was handed to his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
He said: "It was heartbreaking to be disqualified from the race.
"It had been an unbelievable Grand Prix for us to make the one-stop strategy work.
"In what turned out to be my final stint, the tyres just kept getting better and better.
"I was nursing them in the early stages and, as we went further, I became more and more convinced we could get to the end on them. It was a risk worth taking and it looked like it had paid off.
"Despite the disqualification, I am of course proud to have crossed the line first. It is also good that the team was still able to take the victory with Lewis.
"He drove a great race and was the fastest car out there on the two-stop strategy. Whilst I’m incredibly disappointed, I know we will bounce back stronger after the summer break."
The driver from Tydd St Giles had a mixed start to the race weekend as he failed to reach the top three in practice and had no running in the final session due to a typical Spa downpour.
The rain persisted into qualifying which was not completely to Russell's advantage as, although he made it through to the second stage easily, his Mercedes was not suited to the wetter weather.
With the rain still cascading onto the track for the final stage, Russell's first lap put him into third but, as other drivers beat his time, the Brit dropped to seventh.
Alas, a grid penalty for reigning world champion Max Verstapen promoted Russell to the third row where he started in sixth on the medium tyres alongside McLaren's Oscar Piastri.
Russell gained a place on lap one to take him to fifth and in the early stages was catching the Australian but to no avail.
He then dived into the pits on lap 11 for the hard tyre to make what would be his only stop of the race but it brought Russell onto the track in 13th.
However, Russell soon carved his way through the field as other drivers made their pit stops while he also made an impressive overtake on Haas' Kevin Magnussen.
Russell had made his way to the front of the field due to other drivers making a second pit stop but the Mercedes driver took the bold strategic decision to stay out and retain track position.
With just over 10 laps to go, Russell had a seven second lead over his team-mate Lewis Hamilton who was closing in on fresher tyres.
Despite the obvious tyre deficit, changes to the DRS zones of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit meant that it was difficult to overtake and Russell put up a strong defence to hold off Hamilton in the final laps eventually crossing the line half a second ahead of his compatriot.
While Russell celebrated his victory on the podium, the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) were completing their usual post-race scrutineering and found that his car was 1.5kg lighter than the 798kg weight limit.
This discrepancy was then referred to the stewards who ruled that Russell should be stripped of his victory - the first time a driver has been disqualified for an underweight car since 2005.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said the incident was a "massive blow" for Russell and that: "We have to take our disqualification on the chin. We have clearly made a mistake and need to ensure we learn from it.
"We will go away, evaluate what happened and understand what went wrong. To lose a one-two is frustrating and we can only apologise to George who drove such a strong race."
The 2024 Formula One season now takes its annual summer break before returning for the Dutch Grand Prix on August 23-25.