George Russell holds off Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes 1-2 at F1 Belgian Grand Prix

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — George Russell led a Mercedes one-two with Lewis Hamilton at the Belgian Grand Prix after pulling off an audacious one-stop strategy and keeping his teammate at bay to add to a thrilling Formula 1 season on Sunday.

Russell claimed his second win of the season and the third of the British driver’s career after nursing his tires in expert fashion over the 44-lap race while all the rest of the top cars stopped twice.

“Amazing result, definitely didn’t predict that this morning,” Russell said. “But the race was awesome and the tires just felt great. I just kept saying ‘I think we can do the one stop’.”

Hamilton finished ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in third.

Points leader Max Verstappen crossed fifth behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc after the three-time defending champion started from 11th following a 10-place grid penalty for using one too many engines in his Red Bull.

Lando Norris endured another poor start and finished sixth, allowing Verstappen to extend his championship lead to 78 points.

Russell was not expected to be in the mix for the win after he started from sixth. But he told his team that he felt confident that he could milk his tires for all they were worth and forego a second, time-consuming, pit stop.

That proved to be a brilliant decision.

Russell looked like he would be caught by Hamilton and other drivers on fresher tires. Instead, he defended his position over the nail-biting final laps with Piastri lurking in case the teammates clashed.

“We definitely didn’t (expect this), so first of all, congratulations to George and to the team,” Hamilton said. “I was trying to get closer, but George did a great job on going long on the tires. Every stint I had tires left but the team brought me in, unfortunately.”

After Russell shouted for joy after the checkered flag, his team radio praised him as “the tire whisperer.”

The 26-year-old driver shared any credit with his team for making that strategy call.

“It was a team effort, the strategists did a wonderful job. The car felt great and the pace was there. It’s so well deserved for everybody,” he said.

“Well done to Lewis, he did a great job controlling the race and if circumstances were different he could have won the race.”

After struggling early on this season, Mercedes has now won three of the last four races. Russell triumphed in Austria and Hamilton in Britain.

With McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari all producing similar pace – and avoiding race-ending crashes — the victory was a question of small margins and getting the pit-stop and tire strategy right.

Piastri was under two seconds behind Russell and the top six all crossed within 10 seconds.

The seven winners in 13 races after the Hungarian GP had already made this season the most competitive since 2012.

Verstappen has now gone four races without a win after he won four of the first five grands prix this year.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was seventh, ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez, who had started second in another poor showing for the under-pressure Mexican driver. Fernando Alonso was ninth for Aston Martin, and Esteban Ocon 10th in his Alpine.

The Spa track, set in the rolling forests of the Ardennes, is the longest in F1 at seven kilometers (4.3 miles). It stayed dry on Sunday in contrast to the constant drizzle the day before that led to a F2 race being postponed.

With 14 of 24 races down, the season now enters a summer break until the Dutch GP on Aug. 25.