"Keep your head up": Lewis Hamilton tells George Russell as the driver is stripped of his F1 Belgian GP win

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton advised his teammate George Russell to 'keep his head up' after the latter was stripped of his Belgian GP win by the FIA race stewards. The young British driver caught everyone by surprise after he pulled off an unlikely one-stopper to cross the line in first position at the Spa-Francorchamps track on Sunday.

Starting the race from P6, Russell was never in contention for the race win as he did not have the pace of his seven-time world champion teammate in dry conditions. However, he was able to use his 34-lap old tires to claim an unlikely win, which was later stripped from him as he got disqualified due to his W15 being 1.5kg underweight.

George Russell expressed his disappointment via his social media platform and said:

"Heartbreaking… We came in 1.5kg underweight and have been disqualified from the race. We left it all on the track today and I take pride in crossing the line first. There will be more to come."

Lewis Hamilton graciously commented on Russell's post and gave some positive words of affirmation, replying:

"Keep your head up, there will be many more great moments for you ahead. Let's keep pushing."

Screenshot from George Russell's Instagram account

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Lewis Hamilton gives his take after 'mixed' Belgian GP win

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton stated that he had a 'mixed feeling' despite getting the 105th race win of his career at the Belgian GP on Sunday.

As per F1.com, the 39-year-old said:

"It is of course disappointing for the team to lose the 1-2 but there are lots of positives to take away from today. The car was feeling good, and we had a much better pace than we expected. Several cars seemed similar in terms of performance but once we had got ahead, we were able to maintain that position. We committed to the two-stop strategy and covered those directly behind us," Hamilton said.

"George was able to make the one-stop work and, although I got close to him in the final few laps, I was unable to get past in the dirty air. It is incredibly competitive now, so we will need to work hard to battle for wins more consistently. Nevertheless, we can go into the summer break with momentum and positivity," he added.

Russell's DSQ took away the opportunity for Mercedes to register their first 1-2 since the 2022 Brazilian GP, but the team nonetheless came out of the weekend in Spa with 25 points.

Lewis Hamilton too closed in on Ferrari's Carlos Sainz in his bid to get to P5 in the driver's championship with just 12 points between them. It was Hamilton's second win in three races, having previously won in Silverstone earlier in the month.