Hamilton is back as Red Bull face title scrap

Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton are back as a race-winning force, Max Verstappen and Red Bull face a fight to keep their titles and Fernando Alonso may be ageing, but he is not finished yet.

Even as George Russell was disqualified for a technical breach after winning, there was no hiding the obvious outcomes of a tense, intriguing and ultimately thrilling Belgian Grand Prix.

Seven-time champion Hamilton emerged from a two and a half years hiatus when he won the British Grand Prix and has since added a podium in Hungary and Sunday's gifted win.

It confirms he is back and close to his best - he made a superb start, stormed into the lead and controlled the race before Russell's ill-fated one-stop strategy put him ahead -- and in a car that is better than he ever believed possible when he decided to leave Mercedes and join Ferrari next year.

The team may have lost an emphatic one-two triumph when Russell's car was found to be 1.5 kg under-weight in post-race scrutiny but for Hamilton it brought a 105th career win exactly 11 years after he recorded the first of his Mercedes victories in 2013.

As investigations began into the reason for Mercedes' rare error, it was clear that Russell will be involved too in a titles scrap likely to include up to seven drivers.

His 'heartbreaking' loss of Sunday's win with a one-stop strategy from sixth on the grid was most likely due to his bold 'gut instinct' decision to switch from a two-stop on lap 26, thus finishing the race on very worn tyres that weighed significantly less than fresher ones.

Russell's post-race disqualification was a boost for Max Verstappen as he was elevated to fourth ahead of Norris, who once again threw away a chance to reduce the champion's now 78 points lead.

Verstappen had started 11th after taking a grid penalty and used an under-cut to beat his main title rival. It was 'damage limitation', he said.