Antonelli wins Belgian Grand Prix as Hamilton crashes with Russell

Credit: Sky Sports F1. Kimi Antonelli took his first victory since the Monaco Grand Prix.

Kimi Antonelli returned to Grand Prix glory at the Belgian Grand Prix after the Italian fended off Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen to take his sixth victory of the season at Spa.

The Italian extended his lead at the top of the standings as teammate and championship rival George Russell suffered another hefty blow to his title hopes after colliding with Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap.

Verstappen had an impressive start as he overtook Antonelli on the first ascent up Eau Rouge but was quickly passed by the Mercedes after running out of battery on the following straight.

Russell had dropped behind both Ferraris at this point and a snap of oversteer saw Hamilton spin his compatriot into the gravel, for which he was slapped with a five second penalty.

Antonelli survived the restart from a consequent Safety Car and went on to control the race before pitting at the end of lap 18. However, a Virtual Safety Car soon after put him on the back foot as Ferrari double-stacked, where Hamilton served his penalty and a technical mix-up caused the Brit to hit one of his mechanics, who was uninjured. 

Leclerc attempted to win a second successive race, but Antonelli replicated his move on Verstappen at the start to retake the lead. Leclerc followed the Italian to the flag, finishing just 1.9 seconds behind, whilst Verstappen was untroubled in third.

Despite a rough race, Lewis Hamilton finished in fourth ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in fifth, who tangled with Leclerc going into Les Combes where the Australian took some damage.

Sixth and seventh belonged to Isack Hadjar and Lando Norris who both surged through the field after starting from the pitlane and thirteenth respectively.

Gabriel Bortoleto picked up valuable points for Audi in eighth whilst RB’s Arvid Lindblad and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto took the final points positions. 

Pierre Gasly, Liam Lawson and Nico Hulkenberg were the ones who missed out in a closely contested battle for the final points spot just falling short a few seconds behind.

Haas’ Ollie Bearman finished fourteenth some way back, ahead of the two Williams of Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.

The other Haas of Esteban Ocon finished seventeenth after being hit by Sainz at the start, causing a puncture before hitting his teammate and running wide towards the end of the first lap. Cadillac’s Valterri Bottas and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso rounded out the drivers who took the flag.

The latter two drivers’ teammates Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll both retired with problems with their car whilst Russell didn’t complete the first lap after another strike of bad luck.