Martin Brundle shares why he thinks Lewis Hamilton was so upset with Mercedes at Spa

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For the second race in succession, a team believed they had secured a one-two finish with both drivers not completely happy with the result.

Lando Norris was disappointed to follow Oscar Piastri home in Hungary after being forced to hand the lead over to his teammate after undercutting him during the final stint.

At the Belgian Grand Prix, it was Mercedes who thought they were going to pick up maximum points except for Sergio Perez stealing the fastest lap on his final circuit of the track.

George Russell crossed the finish line ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton after executing a perfect one-stop strategy that nobody thought was possible before the race.

Mercedes’s simulations suggested during the race that Russell was going to finish fifth whether he pitted again or stayed out but he defied those expectations by holding his teammate and Piastri off during the final laps of the race.

Unfortunately, Russell suffered heartbreak when his Mercedes was found to be underweight by the FIA and he was subsequently disqualified from the Grand Prix.

It promoted Lewis Hamilton into 1^st to earn the 105^th win of his F1 career, but commentating on the race for Sky Sports F1 (28/7 3:36 pm), Martin Brundle noticed that the seven-time champion wasn’t happy when he got out of his car.

His mood would have improved when he was handed his new trophy, although Hamilton made a point of sending Russell a message after the decision was confirmed.

However, Brundle believes that Hamilton’s frustration lay with the team after leading for so much of the race at Spa but failing to take the chequered flag ahead of his teammate.

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Martin Brundle shares why he thinks Lewis Hamilton was unhappy at Spa

The key to the Belgian Grand Prix ended up being strategy and tyre management and Russell’s gamble suddenly looked like a masterstroke when the newly laid track surface at Spa made it possible for the tyres to last much longer than expected.

Hamilton was brought in to cover the undercut from Charles Leclerc although the Ferrari had been slower than his Mercedes throughout the race.

It allowed Russell to take the lead of the race and even on fresher tyres, he wasn’t able to pass his teammate in the final laps despite having DRS available.

The direction of the wind at Spa changed which hindered the uselessness of the open flag in the rear wing, but understandably after the race, Hamilton was left frustrated and Brundle said: “Lewis is miffed with that isn’t he? He feels that he gave up too much grip in the pit lane at each pit stop.

“He’s not happy about that.”

Co-commentator David Croft added: “Well they pitted him to cover Charles Leclerc who was his main rival for the second stop.”

Brundle concluded: “Yeah, Toto was saying there we thought George was going to be fifth whether we did or didn’t stop so that just shows you the outperformance there.”

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George Russell doomed to lose victory at Spa whether he pitted or not

Russell’s car when weighed by the FIA was 1.5 kg below the minimum allowance, which equates to 375 grams per tyre.

The lack of a cooldown lap at Spa denied Russell the chance to run off line and pick up marbles which could have potentially taken him over the threshold.

However, the alternative would have been to put Russell onto new tyres and mimic the strategy his teammate and everyone else used, but that would have cost him several positions.

In hindsight, it’s easy to say that scoring some points is better than none but Mercedes would have had no idea during the race that once the fuel had been extracted from the car they would be underweight.

Hamilton will still be wondering why Mercedes made the strategy decisions they did based on how much longer the tyres were lasting at Spa.

He’s notoriously good at keeping old rubber alive and will feel that he should have earned victory in the Belgian Grand Prix, rather than just inherit it.