Kimi Antonelli has taken his sixth victory of the season to complete his bounce-back from recent setbacks to win the Belgian Grand Prix, as he finished nearly two seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc. The Italian looks to take control as his teammate and title rival, George Russell, crashed out in a first-lap collision with former teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Antonelli had to fight for victory after losing out under a virtual safety car around half distance when he dropped behind Leclerc and Lando Norris. But in ten laps, he found his way past Norris, Lewis Hamilton, and Max Verstappen before getting passed by Leclerc at La Combes with ten laps to go. Over the remaining laps, he pulled a small advantage over Leclerc to secure victory.
But Antonelli appeared more level-headed and was able to secure his first win since Monaco in early June, after a retirement in Barcelona, a third in Austria and a finish out of the points at Silverstone. As expected, he held the lead at the start, then tactically, after getting around La Source, deployed the power on the long flat-out run to Les Combes (Turns Five to Seven), fending off the Red Bull
Antonelli had more battery in hand for the long Kemmel Straight and duly breezed straight back past the Red Bull before the next braking zone from Les Combes. Leclerc, meanwhile, had made an impressive start from fourth place and also passed Verstappen for second at the same point.
After taking his first win in four Grands Prix by just under two seconds, Antonelli said, “It’s great to be back on the top step after obviously a few difficult rounds. It was a hard-fought race. We lost first place with a VSC, but then we managed to make our way back. It was a tough win because Charles was quick and we had to hold onto them.”
Second place follows Leclerc’s victory at Silverstone a fortnight ago and the Monegasque said: “I believed in the win until the end. We had a little bit of luck with the VSC at the right time for us, but the pace was relatively strong. There were five or six laps on the hard tyres when I was struggling with the front axle, then it came back a little bit.”
The top two had a clear advantage as Leclerc was comfortably nine seconds ahead of Max Verstappen, who lost second to the Ferrari on the opening lap when he tried to challenge for the lead early on. Meanwhile, behind, Hamilton collided with George Russell through La Combes on the opening lap, taking the Mercedes out and earning him a ten-second penalty.
Russell had got alongside Hamilton when, under braking, the left-front tyre of Hamilton’s Ferrari made contact with the rear-right of Russell’s Mercedes under braking, and Russell was sent out of control and into the gravel trap. Russell’s race was instantly over.
Russell said, “The incident with Lewis was a racing incident. He didn’t do it on purpose. He was more to blame than I. But he didn’t do anything reckless”
Verstappen early on had tried to challenge Antonelli, but as the race went on and following the pit stops the Red Bull faded as Leclerc started finding pace in the Ferrari. Hamilton finished the race fourth, five and a half seconds behind Verstappen, having served the time penalty at his stop.
However, during that stop, he was released too early and knocked over a mechanic working on his car, with Ferrari fined €30,000, €10,000 of it suspended, for an unsafe release. Hamilton is back ahead of Russell in second to Antonelli in the standings, forty-five points behind the Italian, with one race to go in Hungary this coming week before F1’s summer break.
Before that stop the seven-time champion had successfully passed the McLarens, as he finished almost two seconds ahead of Oscar Piastri. McLaren, aware of a potential penalty, instructed Piastri to get within five seconds of Hamilton in case there is a penalty.
Isack Hadjar drove a strong race, fending off Lando Norris as they fought back from penalties. Hadjar had the biggest gain, having started in twenty-first as he made up sixteen places to finish seven tenths ahead of Norris, the world champion having started thirteenth and run long into the race before making his only pit stop on x.
But the stop proved key in the fight between Hadjar and Norris, the Red Bull had stopped under the early safety car while Norris stopped in the latter part of the race, but that strategy was undone by a slow stop and losing a place to Gabriel Bortoletto. Norris was had to re-pass him on track which he did but not without losing time.
Bortoleto finished eighth, the Brazilian twenty-five seconds behind Norris as he finished just over a second ahead of Arvid Lindblad. Franco Colapinto scored the final point as he finished nearly a second ahead of his Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly.
During the closing stages, the Alpine duo had fended off Liam Lawson and Nico Hulkenberg, who were within a second of the car ahead but finished in that order. Ollie Bearman was unable to join the tussle for the final points as he dropped sixteen seconds behind the Audi.
Alex Albon was a further ten seconds behind the Haas as he finished a second ahead of his Williams teammate Carlos Sainz, with Esteban Ocon the final car on the lead lap. Valtteri Bottas was a lap down and a lap ahead of Fernando Alonso, as they crossed the line their respective teammates Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll were the other two retirements with technical issues.
Related
- Belgian GP – Qualifying Result
- BELGIAN GP – Kimi Antonelli beats Max Verstappen to pole by just over three tenths
- BELGIAN GP – Kimi Antonelli under a tenth and a half ahead of Lando Norris in third practice
- BELGIAN GP – Kimi Antonelli two tenths faster than Lando Norris in second practice
- BELGIAN GP – Max Verstappen almost a tenth and a half ahead of the Ferrari in first practice
- Analysis – State of the championship race
- PRIXVIEW – Belgian Grand Prix
