Belgian GP: Kimi Antonelli takes big Spa-Francorchamps win to capitalise on George Russell's exit from Lewis Hamilton collision
A sixth win for Kimi Antonelli increases his title lead over Lewis Hamilton, who finished fourth, to 45 points and George Russell, who was spun out on first lap after a collision with Hamilton, to 50 points; Charles Leclerc second, Max Verstappen third
Monday 20 July 2026 07:48, UK
Kimi Antonelli overcame an unfortunately-timed Virtual Safety Car to overtake Charles Leclerc and win the Belgian Grand Prix on a day team-mate George Russell's title hopes suffered a major fresh setback.
Antonelli doubled his in-house advantage over Russell to 50 points after the Briton was spun out into the gravel at the fifth corner of the first lap in a collision with Lewis Hamilton that stewards judged the Ferrari driver at fault for.
Hamilton was given a five-second penalty, which he served at his sole pit stop, and eventually finished fourth after overtaking McLaren's Oscar Piastri with four laps to go.
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Hamilton and Ferrari faced a post-race investigation for an unsafe Ferrari release at the same pit stop.
A mechanic was struck by the Ferrari's front-right tyre and was briefly knocked to his knees after Hamilton was incorrectly given the signal to leave his pit box. The mechanic was unhurt.
Ferrari were fined €30,000, of which a third of the amount was suspended for 12 months, for the incident.
Hamilton moves back ahead of Russell to second behind Antonelli in the standings - 45 points behind the Italian, whose sixth victory of the season reinforces his championship favourite status with one race to go in Hungary this coming week before Formula 1's summer break after Mercedes unreliability had struck his car in two of the previous three races.
Max Verstappen, who briefly took the lead from Antonelli on the first lap into Eau Rouge before the Mercedes almost immediately blasted back past, took third after he was also jumped by Leclerc during the VSC.
The Dutchman struggled on the hard tyres in the final stint and finished nine seconds behind Leclerc for Red Bull's 300th podium finish in F1.
Isack Hadjar drove strongly to finish sixth in the second Red Bull from the back row, opportunistically making two pit stops under the early Safety Car for Russell's crash to fulfil the mandatory race-tyre requirements.
Hadjar just held off Lando Norris, who was on significantly fresher tyres, after the McLaren had run to lap 30 before making his one pit stop having started a penalised 13th on the grid.
Gabriel Bortoleto was eighth for Audi ahead of Racing Bulls' Arvid Lindblad and Alpine's Franco Colapinto.
How faultless Antonelli was made to win the hard way
Mercedes' world championship leader had been the big favourite to win the race after qualifying on a dominant pole position but the 19-year-old's route to victory on Sunday did not prove quite as straightforward as many had expected across a tense 44 laps of racing at Spa-Francorchamps.
Antonelli had, though, always been braced for a battle to hold on to his lead through the first lap of the race from fellow front-row-starter Verstappen due to the slipstream-friendly nature of the opening part of the undulating, power-sensitive Belgian lap.
He stayed ahead on the short initial run to La Source but, amid different stages of energy deployment, was overtaken by Verstappen as they arrived at the bottom of Eau Rouge.
But Antonelli had more battery power in hand for the long Kemmel Straight and duly breezed straight back past the Red Bull before the next braking zone of Les Combes.
Leclerc, meanwhile, had made an impressive start from fourth place and passed Verstappen too.
Verstappen got back ahead of the Ferrari for second place on lap six and, impressively so given the pre-race expectations had been that Antonelli would run and hide, managed to keep the leading Mercedes in view. He was less than three seconds behind Antonelli when he pitted first on lap 17.
Antonelli stopped a lap later and stayed ahead of the Red Bull to maintain the net race lead.
But Ferrari had kept both their drivers out for longer and benefitted when, on lap 20, the Virtual Safety Car was initiated for debris on track.
With the cars on circuit forced to run at reduced speed, Ferrari were able to pit their drivers simultaneously while losing less race time compared to a non-VSC stop.
It worked a treat as Leclerc had jumped both Verstappen and Antonelli on his return to the circuit.
However, Hamilton, who first had to serve his five-second penalty before his tyre change could commence, was further delayed when confusion led to the mechanic who had been asked to adjust his front wing being knocked over when the Briton incorrectly got the green light to leave the box.
Leclerc re-emerged 2.5 seconds ahead of Antonelli and with the apparent advantage of slightly fresher hard tyres.
But the Mercedes simply had too much speed and, unlike two weeks before at Silverstone when the Silver Arrow ran into technical trouble just as it appeared poised to overtake the Ferrari for the lead, Antonelli on lap 34 moved ahead of Leclerc down the Kemmel Straight.
Not that Mercedes simply breezed away from Ferrari thereafter, Antonelli eventually taking the chequered flag just 1.9s ahead of Leclerc to secure a narrow but significant win given the context of both his recent misfortune and Russell's early exit here.
"It's great to be back on the top step after obviously a few difficult rounds," said Antonelli. "It was a hard-fought race. We lost first place with a VSC but then we managed to make our way back.
"It was a tough win because Charles was quick and we had to hold onto them."
Second place followed Leclerc's victory at Silverstone amid a resurgence in his form, and the Monegasque said: "I believed in the win until the end. We had a little bit of luck with the VSC at the right time for us but the pace was relatively strong.
"There were five or six laps on the hard tyres when I was struggling with the front axle, then it came back a little bit."
Russell bemoans Mercedes straight-line speed issues after Hamilton tangle
Race day could barely have gone any worse for a frustrated Russell in the other title-contending Mercedes car.
The Briton had qualified third, a position he held until the Kemmel Straight on lap one when both Ferraris drafted past him and he came under attack from Piastri's McLaren too.
Russell attempted to come back at Hamilton on the outside of his compatriot under braking for the right-handed turn into Les Combes, but the Ferrari understeered and tagged the Mercedes' right-rear wheel, spinning it round into the gravel.
Stewards may have penalised Hamilton for the incident, but Russell instead took issue with the mysterious straight-line speed issues that had dogged his Mercedes all weekend.
"I just got totally swallowed up down the straight," said a dejected Russell.
"I lost three positions down the straight down into Turn Five and then the incident was a racing incident.
"Maybe I could have gone a bit wider, maybe he (Hamilton) could have braked a bit more. The incident shouldn't have happened if I had the speed down the straight."
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