Kimi Antonelli won the Belgian Grand Prix and secured his sixth Formula 1 victory. Charles Leclerc finished second ahead of Max Verstappen in third.
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| Photo by Steven Tee |
Two weeks after Silverstone, Formula 1 moved to the longest circuit on the calendar – Spa-Francorchamps, which measures 7 kilometres. For comparison, Silverstone is 5.891 kilometres long. That meant the Grand Prix was scheduled for only 44 laps.
Spa presented a true challenge for all teams, as the circuit features long straights, meaning the unpopular superclipping returned to play a role. To explain, on the long straights the battery eventually runs out of energy, leaving the car powered only by the internal combustion engine. Despite that, the race itself produced some exciting battles.
Right after the start, Max Verstappen, who started second, overtook Kimi Antonelli and took the lead before Eau Rouge. However, Kimi gained incredible speed on the Kemmel Straight and retook the lead at Les Combes. Leclerc also managed to get ahead of the Dutchman.
In the same section, Kimi's teammate George Russell was taken out of the race by Lewis Hamilton. The two drivers went side by side into Turn 7, where Hamilton, on the inside line, made contact with Russell's rear wheel, spinning George into the gravel, where he became stuck.
"Me and Lewis, honestly, I think it was a race incident," Russell said. "He didn't do it on purpose." Despite the fact that Russell himself admitted it was more of a racing incident, Hamilton was given a five-second time penalty.
As Russell's car was stuck in the gravel, the safety car came out. The race was then restarted on lap 5 with Kimi in the lead, Leclerc in second position and Verstappen in third. A lap later, Verstappen overtook Leclerc for second place, and two laps later Piastri tried to get ahead of Leclerc as well, but the two made contact in Turn 7, which caused damage to Oscar's car. However, they were both able to continue the race.
Verstappen came into the pits on lap 17. Shortly after that, the VSC was deployed due to debris on the track. Antonelli reacted to Verstappen's stop and also came into the pits.
Just three laps later, a second VSC of the race was deployed, again due to debris on the track. The Ferrari drivers took advantage of it and headed into the pits. Hamilton had to serve his five-second time penalty during his stop. While leaving the pit box, he unfortunately hit one of his mechanics. Thankfully, he was uninjured, but Ferrari had to visit the Formula 1 stewards after the race and was fined €30,000.
"But when it happened, then I noticed him and I stopped, and all that went through my mind in that moment was back when Kimi hit a mechanic and broke his leg. My heart really sank for a second. I'm really grateful he's OK," said Hamilton.
Thanks to the VSC pit stop, Leclerc was able to get ahead of Kimi Antonelli and more or less took the effective race lead, as Lando Norris, who was running first, had not yet served his mandatory pit stop.
On lap 23, Leclerc overtook Norris, while Antonelli did the same on lap 26. Leclerc held on until lap 34, when Kimi retook the lead. Although Charles lost the lead, he was still able to match Kimi's pace. However, he didn't have a realistic chance to reclaim first place.
After 44 laps, Antonelli crossed the finish line in first place and secured the sixth victory of his career. Leclerc finished second, with Verstappen completing the podium in third. Despite the penalty and the incident during the pit stop, Hamilton managed to finish fourth, while Piastri came home fifth.
"It's great to be back on the top step after obviously a few difficult rounds," said Antonelli. "Was a hard-fought race. We lost first place with a VSC but then we managed to make our way back. Was a tough win because Charles was quick and we had to hold onto that."
Russell is now 50 points behind Antonelli in the championship, but in one week's time, he will have a chance to reduce this gap as the Hungarian Grand Prix will be held on July 26.