Kimi Antonelli held his nerve through a Safety Car restart and a late charge from Charles Leclerc to win a dramatic Belgian Grand Prix, stretching his championship lead on a day that turned sour for his Mercedes teammate George Russell.
Max Verstappen made the move of the race in the opening seconds, blasting past pole sitter Antonelli through Eau Rouge to snatch the lead, but he couldn’t make it stick, and Antonelli was back in front before long. Behind them, the race unraveled for Mercedes, as Antonelli’s teammate Russell was tagged by contact between his own teammate and Lewis Hamilton, spinning into the gravel and ending his afternoon early.
The race turned on strategy around the one third mark. A Virtual Safety Car on lap 20 of 44 gave Leclerc the perfect window to pit without losing the track position that rivals stopping under green flag conditions were sacrificing, handing him the lead. Antonelli didn’t panic. He reeled Leclerc back in and made his move on lap 34, out braking the Ferrari at the end of the Kemmel Straight to reclaim first place. From there, he survived a late Safety Car restart and a final push from Leclerc, crossing the line 1.9 seconds clear to seal his sixth win of the season, his first since Monaco.
Leclerc came home second, just ahead of Verstappen, who claimed his third podium of the year. Hamilton finished fourth on the road but was hit with a five second penalty for his part in the Russell incident. Oscar Piastri rounded out the top five for McLaren. Further back, Isack Hadjar produced the standout recovery drive of the day, climbing from the back of the grid to sixth, while Lando Norris fought up to seventh from a similarly poor starting spot. Gabriel Bortoleto scored points for Audi in eighth, with Arvid Lindblad and Franco Colapinto completing the top ten.
The battle for the final points spot went down to the wire, with Pierre Gasly, Liam Lawson and Nico Hulkenberg all missing out narrowly. Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez both retired with car issues, joining Russell among the day’s non finishers. With his sixth victory of the season, Antonelli further tightened his grip on the drivers’ championship, though the real cost of the day may fall on Mercedes’ constructors’ campaign.
