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The Mercedes driver won his sixth GP of 2026 as rival and teammate George Russell crashed for the first time.
Published on 19 Jul 2026
Kimi Antonelli won the Belgian Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday to extend his Formula One lead to 45 points over Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton on a bad day for race rival George Russell.
Russell was the 19-year-old Italian’s closest rival before the start at Spa-Francorchamps, but the Briton crashed out of the opening cobbles after colliding with Hamilton as he tried to make up ground lost at the lights.
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Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was second in the 44-lap race, 1.952 seconds behind the lead, due to a pit stop when the safety car was deployed, with Max Verstappen third to give Red Bull their 300th Formula One podium.
Hamilton finished fourth, despite serving a five-minute penalty for a collision with Russell, but remained in contention for an unsafe pit stop that would have dropped him to fifth and extended Antonelli’s lead.
It was Antonelli’s sixth win in 10 races this season, leaving him 50 points ahead of Russell. Antonelli was first to qualify, continuing Mercedes’ sweep of the poles this season.
“It’s great to be back on the top step after a couple of difficult rounds,” said Antonelli, who has drawn points in the past three rounds.
“It was a very difficult competition, we lost first place to VSC but we managed to come back.
“The pace was always there. It was about getting results,” he added. “Today we were lucky with what happened in the competition but you have to take every opportunity because we saw how it can change.”
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri finished fifth, with Isack Hadjar sixth for Red Bull from last in the group. Reigning champion Lando Norris was seventh for McLaren after starting 13th due to a 10-team drop.
Gabriel Bortoleto brought the most points for Audi in eighth place, while Arvid Lindblad ninth for Racing Bulls and Argentine Franco Colapinto finished the scoring in 10th place for Renault-owned Alpine.
