Two weeks after the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Formula 1 returned to action amidst Belgium’s Ardennes forests on the legendary Spa Francorchamps circuit, a challenging high-speed track which has always sorted the men from the boys and the great from the merely very good, and, after an exciting rollercoaster of a race, it proved to be Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli who claimed the victory spoils.

Since the previous round, Red Bull has been conducting an internal investigation into its rotating rear wing malfunctions in Austrian qualifying and during the British Grand Prix, which caused two high-speed accidents for its frustrated four-time champion, Max Verstappen. As a result, the team opted to revert to a more normal rear wing mechanism for Belgium, while it continues to try to resolve issues with the rotating one.

On arrival at Spa, Lando Norris knew that he would face a 10-place grid penalty for the Grand Prix after his McLaren team had installed a fourth power electronics unit of the season on his car, one more than the three allowed for the whole season. The decision to do so in Belgium rather than elsewhere was based on the Spa circuit's nature, where overtaking is easier than at the following round in Hungary.

With there not being an accompanying Sprint encounter in Belgium, the teams and drivers had three hour-long free practice periods to prepare for Saturday’s qualifying and then the following day’s Grand Prix. In the first session Verstappen led the way, followed by the Ferrari duo of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc plus his Red Bull teammate, Isack Hadjar, but the replacement of various elements of the latter’s power unit meant that he was destined to start from the rear of the grid. The subsequent Friday practice hour was twice interrupted by red flags, the second time following a hefty accident for Alpine’s Pierre Gasly on the approach to Stavelot, and it was Mercedes’ teenage star, Antonelli, who topped the timing screens ahead of Norris and Verstappen, with George Russell only eighth fastest and well off the pace of his Mercedes teammate. Antonelli, Norris and Verstappen were again quickest in Saturday’s final practice, while near the end of the session Hamilton lost control of his Ferrari at the exit of Fagnes, giving his mechanics a major repair task before qualifying.

Being on the front row of the grid for the Grand Prix at Spa isn’t as significant as being so at circuits like Monaco and the Hungaroring, but the qualifying hour was still important, and it was Antonelli who again put in an absolutely superb lap to claim pole position from Verstappen, with his boss, Toto Wolff, enthusiastically describing the young Italian as “being on another planet!” Second-placed Verstappen was helped by a couple of aerodynamic tows from Hadjar, while Norris and an improving Russell, if still half a second slower than his teammate, proved to be the best of the rest. The reigning champion’s grid penalty, though, would drop him well down the starting order. Meanwhile, the Aston Martin duo embarrassingly remained the slowest cars in current F1 by a distance.

Charles Leclerc fought hard, but had to settle for second place

Spa is the longest track on the Formula 1 calendar, and thus the race was set to comprise just 44 laps, compared to the 78 at Monaco. It was significant too that Antonelli’s pole time was almost four seconds slower than Norris’ at the same venue under similar conditions this time last year, underlining the fact that the 2026 new technical regulations have indeed made the cars slower, not that you would notice this with the naked eye stood trackside, just via a media room timing screen.

It’s a short run from the front of the grid to the first right-hander at La Source, and, although Verstappen soon took an early lead, by Les Combes on the opening lap he was third behind both Antonelli and Leclerc. Crucially, there was contact between Hamilton and Russell at this same corner, resulting in Russell being out of the race partway through the first tour while Hamilton continued in fifth. However, the seven-time champion was soon to receive a five-second penalty from the stewards for causing an avoidable collision, not that the ruling helped the very disappointed Russell, who bemoaned a lack of straightline speed compared to his teammate.

As the Grand Prix settled, Antonelli led from Leclerc and Verstappen before the Dutch racer swept into second place on the Kemmel Straight on lap six. Verstappen and Antonelli pitted on laps 18 and 19, respectively, before the start of a Virtual Safety Car period. One lap later, it enabled Ferrari to bring both of its drivers down the pitlane for a “cheap” stop, which allowed Leclerc to leapfrog past Antonelli and Verstappen. When leaving his pit box, Hamilton knocked over one of the Ferrari mechanics, who fortunately wasn’t injured, but it left the team awaiting a stewards’ post-race verdict about the incident. It was subsequently announced that Hamilton would be allowed to retain his race result, but Ferrari was fined 30,000 Euros for the unsafe release.

On lap 34 Antonelli passed Leclerc to regain the lead, and, although the Monégasque driver did his best to fight back, the post-race podium trio comprised a delighted Antonelli, Leclerc and Verstappen. Hamilton and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri finished fourth and fifth, and Hadjar deserves a special mention for fighting his way from the back of the grid to sixth.

So, Antonelli claimed his sixth win of the season and increased his Drivers’ Championship lead over the non-scoring Russell to 50 points, while Hamilton rose to second, 45 points adrift of his Italian rival. On the Constructors’ front, Mercedes still remained comfortably ahead of Ferrari despite Russell’s first lap demise.

Formula 1’s legendary logistical capabilities again came to the fore as soon as the chequered flag had been shown in Belgium, as the following Grand Prix takes place in Hungary just a week later, and this will be the final one before the sport’s customary four-week summer break begins.



Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix
1 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 1hr24m42.479s
2 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +1.952s
3 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +11.586s
4 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +17.245s
5 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +18.988s
6 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +23.307s
7 Lando Norris (McLaren) +24.014s
8 Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +49.140s
9 Oliver Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +50.406s
10 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +1m16.037s
11 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +1m16.991s
12 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +1m17.523s
13 Nico Hülkenberg (Audi) +1m18.348s
14 Oliver Bearman (Haas) +1m34.465s
15 Alex Albon (Williams) +1m44.684s
16 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +1m45.856s
17 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1m50.925s
18 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) Lapped
19 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) Lapped
20 Sergio Pérez (Cadillac) Retired
21 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) Retired
22 George Russell (Mercedes) Retired



2026 Drivers’ Championship
1 Kimi Antonelli 204
2 Lewis Hamilton 159
3 George Russell 154

2026 Constructors’ Championship
1 Mercedes 358
2 Ferrari 285
3 McLaren 195