Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli regained his comfortable lead in the Formula 1 world championship, which had declined in the last three races, by triumphing in the Belgian Grand Prix, held on Sunday, July 19, 2026. The feat was even more remarkable as his teammate, George Russell, abandoned the race after an accident.
The Italian overcame a challenging situation during a virtual safety car period to catch and overtake Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. This victory marked Antonelli’s sixth triumph in ten races contested this season.
Russell, in turn, had his participation ended after a collision with Lewis Hamilton, from Ferrari, on the first lap. With the retirement, he fell to third place in the general classification, 50 points behind Antonelli.
As a result of the race, Hamilton advanced to second place in the championship, with a five-point advantage over Russell, who finished the stage in fourth place.
The last place on the podium was occupied by Max Verstappen, from the Red Bull team.
Among the crucial moments of a race surprisingly full of emotion, the following stand out:
- Yet another setback for Russell, whose gains from previous races were wiped out within a matter of seconds of the start.
- The intervention of the virtual safety car (VSC), which unexpectedly granted Leclerc an opportunity to claim his second consecutive victory.
- The VSC also impacted Lando Norris, who was in podium position, but had his performance affected after a penalty that made him start in 13th.
Russell analyzes collision and exempts Hamilton from blame for the incident on the track
Mercedes’ George Russell spun and was forced to abandon the race after colliding with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton’s car on the first lap of the Belgian Grand Prix.
At the start of the race, Antonelli seemed to confirm pre-race expectations of dominating the front of the pack, buoyed by his impressive pole position on Saturday.
Shrewd driving on the first lap allayed his concerns about being overtaken on the climb to Les Combes, where he allowed Verstappen to overtake him at Eau Rouge and then take advantage of the slipstream and retake the lead on the next straight at Kemmel.
Further back, Russell entered the Les Combes curve side by side with Hamilton, looking to overtake the Ferrari on the outside of the track.
Russell was ahead at the entrance of the curve when a slight oscillation by Hamilton, caused by turbulence in the front wing amid the dispute between Antonelli, Verstappen and Leclerc in front of him, resulted in a touch with the Mercedes, which spun and stopped in the gravel pit, eliminating the driver from the race.
Visibly emotional, Russell declared: “I came out of turn one and for some reason my battery was 30 to 40% charged. I ended up being completely overtaken by three cars. About the incident with Lewis, I didn’t really see it. But I thought it was probably a racing incident. I’m not going to blame Lewis. If things were normal, I’d be battling Lewis, battling Kimi and Max.” He continued, frustrated: “It’s one thing after another, one after another, one after another. It’s not good enough across the board, so I’m going to try to start over. I’ve done it enough times this season and we’ll see what we can do.”
Antonelli shows mastery on the track as Hamilton faces tension with penalties
Antonelli managed his pace carefully during the first stretch of the race, preserving his tires until he was instructed to accelerate as his pit stop approached.
On lap 17, with Verstappen already in the pits to change new tires, Antonelli managed to increase his advantage over Leclerc by 0.3 seconds, reaching 3.5 seconds, before making his own stop on the following lap.
Two laps later, however, a virtual safety car period, due to debris on the track, offered Leclerc an advantageous pit stop. Stopping under a safety car could cut pit stop time in half compared to a green flag, allowing Leclerc to change tires and return to the track ahead of Antonelli.
At this point, Norris was in the lead, but Leclerc quickly overtook the McLaren on lap 26. The central question then became how long it would take Antonelli to close the three-second gap to Ferrari.
Eight laps later, Antonelli was already close and overtook the Ferrari on the Kemmel straight, on lap 34 of a total of 44.
Leclerc managed to stay close to Antonelli, whose advantage never exceeded two seconds. Additional pressure hung on the Mercedes driver as he was at risk of receiving a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits on several occasions.
However, Antonelli demonstrated serenity and control, crossing the finish line with less than two seconds ahead and once again securing the championship lead.
This was his first victory since the Monaco Grand Prix in early June, following a DNF in Spain, a third place in Austria and a result outside the points zone in the British Grand Prix.
Ferrari displayed better race pace than expected, and Leclerc’s second place was a remarkable performance, especially after his win at Silverstone, which was facilitated by a failure in a component in Antonelli’s car.
Leclerc was lucky to avoid a penalty for putting pressure on Oscar Piastri when the McLaren driver attacked him during the first stint. Consistent driving, however, confirmed his recovery after a challenging period of racing at the start of the European summer.
Hamilton, on the other hand, faced considerable difficulties. The incident with Russell resulted in a five-second penalty being given to his pit stop. When he finally stopped for a tire change, he was released before all the mechanics were completely out of the way.
When accelerating, Hamilton ended up hitting a mechanic with his right front tire. He immediately radioed to see if his colleague was okay, which was confirmed by the team.
The incident was the subject of an investigation after the race, resulting in a €30,000 fine for Ferrari, with €10,000 suspended for 12 months should a similar infraction occur. The problem was caused because Hamilton’s request for a change to the front wing configuration was not transmitted correctly to Ferrari’s system, leading to the car being released while the mechanic was still moving to adjust the wing.
Hamilton managed to recover well from the delays, overtaking Piastri and taking fourth place, behind Verstappen. The Red Bull driver consolidated third place despite expressing dissatisfaction with the lack of grip from his second set of tires.
Transfer of Mercedes scout Lagrue to the Red Bull team
Norris performed exemplary driving during the first stint, deftly advancing through the midfield to challenge the cars in front and take the lead while the other drivers made their pit stops.
He appeared to be on track to potentially challenge the Ferraris with his distinctive strategy of starting on hard rather than medium tires, until the Virtual Safety Car occurred.
He was forced to stay on the track because it was not the ideal time to change tires, and the mediums would be too risky for the final part of the race.
This caused him to lose a lot of time compared to the leaders, who caught up after their respective stops.
First Leclerc, then Antonelli and finally Verstappen overtook him. Norris was only slightly ahead of Piastri – who had been instructed not to waste time jockeying for position with him – when he finally stopped on lap 30, with 14 laps remaining.
He lost further time due to a slow pit stop, when his left rear wheel had difficulty removing and replacing it. All these delays cost him the chance to compete for third place with Verstappen, even though he started 13th due to a 10-place penalty for exceeding the season’s battery limit.
Norris managed to overtake Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto to secure seventh place, but did not have enough time to overtake Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, who finished sixth, crossing the finish line 0.7 seconds ahead of the Frenchman.
British Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad finished ninth, while Alpine’s Franco Colapinto took the final point by finishing tenth.
Final classification of the Belgian Grand Prix: Top 10
- Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
- Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
- Isack Hadjar (Red Bull)
- Lando Norris (McLaren)
- Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi)
- Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls)
- Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
