Five Winners, Five Losers: Belgian Grand Prix
- Peter Johnson
- 2 days ago
- 9 min read
Who were the big winners and losers on a day that had huge implications for the title race?
Winner: Kimi Antonelli
It was a welcome return to the top step for Kimi Antonelli after three races away, with little doubt that he was going to end up there.
Consistently close to half a second up on title rival George Russell across Friday and Saturday, the Italian took pole by the biggest margin of the season, more than three tenths up on second-placed Max Verstappen.
The Dutchman briefly passed Antonelli on the opening lap, but ceded first place once more by the end of the Kemmel Straight. Verstappen remained within around two seconds before trying the undercut on Lap 17, but was the big loser when the virtual safety car was deployed while marshals cleared debris.
From that point on, it was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc — the big winner from the VSC — who stood between Antonelli and victory, but the Italian swiftly cut away the three-second gap and made his race-winning pass on Lap 34.
He took both his sixth pole and victory of 2026, having never achieved either before this season. He is now tied with Ricardo Patrese with the second-most victories for an Italian driver, and will soon be coming for Alberto Ascari’s long-standing record of 13.
What’s more, he extended his championship lead for the first time in four races to hold a 45-point advantage over Lewis Hamilton.
Winner: Charles Leclerc
Charles Leclerc’s British Grand Prix victory a fortnight ago has already demonstrably transformed his season.
Ferrari feared they would lose out with their straight-line speed at Spa, which spelled danger around a circuit where it is relatively easy to overtake. However, the Scuderia emerged from the weekend as the highest-scoring team, in no small part thanks to their man from Monaco.
After a brief flirtation with second place, Leclerc settled into third in the opening laps before a robust defence against Oscar Piastri at Les Combes on Lap 8, for which he was extremely fortunate to avoid a penalty.
After going longer in the first stint than Antonelli or Verstappen ahead, Leclerc was the prime beneficiary of the virtual safety car on Lap 20 and inherited the lead. While the overtake from Antonelli was inevitable, the Monégasque managed to stay within two seconds until the chequered flag with a noble chase.
In all, Piastri manoeuvre notwithstanding, it was a thoroughly impressive drive from Leclerc, who now seems to have rediscovered his mojo.
Winner: Isack Hadjar
Once again, not too far behind the Dutchman, Isack Hadjar continues to be a steady hand in the second Red Bull.
In fact, his performance at Spa was far from steady, scything through the field from 21st to 6th after two early pit stops behind the safety car.
With an accumulated 30-place grid penalty for using excessive engine components, the Parisian played the team game in Qualifying to reach Q3 and offer Verstappen a huge tow through Blanchimont on both of his push laps to enable an otherwise unlikely front row start.
On Sunday, Hadjar’s lowly start arguably benefited him when the early safety car came out, as with no track position to defend he could afford two stops in quick succession to open up his race strategy.
With one lap on the mediums completed, Hadjar could run the rest of the race on two aggressive stints on the hard tyre and duly cut through the field.
With his result of sixth, he becomes the first Frenchman since Alain Prost in 1993 to record six consecutive top-six results.
Red Bull may have plenty of causes for concern currently, but Hadjar is not one of them.
Winner: Gabriel Bortoleto
After a series of frustrating races for Audi, the team is now beginning to collect the points they have surely deserved plenty more of this season.
Once again, it was Gabriel Bortoleto who was on hand to deliver, posting his second consecutive eighth place to bring home another four points.
The Brazilian spent Practice and Qualifying flirting with the top ten, building up to ninth by Q3, which became eighth following Norris’ penalty.
He ran a fairly anonymous race on Sunday, but to absolutely no complaint from his team, as he finished best of the rest behind the big four teams minus Russell.
This was the first such result for Audi this season, and with Nico Hülkenberg once again unlucky to miss out on points the team did look to have the fifth fastest car.
Bortoleto’s recent results have brought his team within striking distance of Williams and Haas, and with that a possible and arguably deserved P7 in the constructors’ standings.
Winner: Arvid Lindblad
Arvid Lindblad’s impressive rookie season has turned a few heads so far, with the young Brit scoring in five of the first nine races.
However, since the season-opening Australian Grand Prix he had not finished ahead of teammate Liam Lawson. That changed at Spa, as Lindblad firmly outperformed the Kiwi for the first time.
From the start of Practice 3, the rookie always held an advantage of around half a second a lap, which was reflected in a career-highest grid slot of seventh and a gap of 27 seconds to Lawson by the end of Lap 44. Although this result was in part due to the upgrades given to the Brit but not his teammate, it remains an impressive feat given that it is his first year in the sport.
Furthermore, in scoring points in a fifth straight race, only Hamilton and Hadjar have longer active points streaks than the young Brit.
If this performance is anything to go by, then it appears Lindblad is done with his settling in phase and now means serious business. With a possible opening at Red Bull in the near future, he is playing his hand wonderfully.
Loser: George Russell
George Russell was in near tears as he stood in the media pen just five laps into the Belgian Grand Prix, and that in itself is a fairly astute summary of his weekend.
Russell could only look on in confusion as Kimi Antonelli once again had a few tenths in his pocket in the sister Mercedes from the very first on-track action on Friday morning.
A message from race engineer Marcus Dudley during Qualifying confirmed that all of that deficit was on the straights, and unfortunately it was this that would prove his undoing of Lap 1 of the Grand Prix.
Starting third, the Brit was swarmed by both Ferraris and Oscar Piastri down the Kemmel Straight, before meeting Lewis Hamilton and subsequently the gravel trap in the middle of Les Combes.
A visually emotional Russell was notably averse to blaming Hamilton for what he described as a “racing incident”, instead lamenting the fact that he was so far down the field in the first place.
In stark contrast to his triumphant team radio after a dominant win in Melbourne all those months ago, it is now abundantly clear that Russell isn’t keen on his car, and certainly isn’t impressed by his engine.
50 points down to Antonelli and once again dropping behind Hamilton in the championship, Russell is more in need than anyone of a strong race in Hungary before the summer recess.
Loser: Lewis Hamilton
It wasn’t quite a case of “what could go wrong, did go wrong” for Lewis Hamilton in Spa, but it was close enough.
The Brit made a thoroughly uncharacteristic mistake at the end of Practice 3 to destroy his car, and was unable thereafter to maintain the upper hand he had held on teammate Leclerc.
The faster Ferrari in all three practice sessions, Hamilton’s pace took a hit heading into Qualifying but was still only two thousandths of a second off the Monégasque by the end of Q3.
However, his lower grid position was costly from the jump, fighting with Russell up the Kemmel Straight while Leclerc darted up to second place. The collision with his old teammate resulted in an arguably harsh five-second penalty, which led to chaos when he came to serve it at his pit stop.
As his crew waited for five seconds before fitting his new hard tyres, the mechanic responsible for changing his front wing angle stepped forward only after Hamilton had been released from his pit box. This prompted a collision with the crew member and a momentary hesitation from the driver, before the inevitable stewards’ investigation into an unsafe release.
All the while, with another potential penalty hanging over him (Ferrari were later fined for the incident), Hamilton had to plough on with the wrong wing angle and significant understeer.
However, by the end of the race the seven-time champion was the second-fastest man on track behind Lando Norris, who stopped far later than everybody else in his McLaren.
Hamilton passed Piastri late on for fourth place, and coming home just 17 seconds down on Antonelli despite all of the above suggests an opportunity wasted.
He does, however, reinstate himself as the Italian’s nearest challenger in the championship.
Loser: Spa-Francorchamps
It seems almost sacrilegious to criticise one of F1’s most iconic and gorgeous venues, but Spa did not come out of this Grand Prix weekend smelling of roses.
While it is a shame to see the circuit placed on rotation with Barcelona from next year, it is actually little surprise and possibly even for the best, especially with the new generation of cars.
First off, while being the best-attended Belgian Grand Prix ever, it was one of the only races so far in 2026 not to be sold out, with tickets still available right up until race day. Granted, with the Dutch Grand Prix just a couple of hundred miles up the road next month, it is a competitive market, but the fact is that for whatever reason the event is not as popular as it could or should be.
Secondly, Spa was arguably the worst-equipped circuit so far for these new battery-orientated regulations. The onboard for Kimi Antonelli’s pole lap was dreadful viewing, with F1’s speedometer and throttle/brake graphics conspicuous in their absence all weekend.
What F1 tried to hide through lack of visuals, though, was still audibly striking. Antonelli lifted and coasted into Les Combes, Malmedy, Fagnes and Stavelot, barely used the full width of the track through the once terrifying Pouhon, downshifted — downshifted! — through Blanchimont, and even coasted across the finish line to end his lap.
We now live in a world where pressing the accelerator makes you go slower in Qualifying, and even the planned tweaks to the regulations for 2027 are unlikely to be enough to bring the old challenge back to Spa.
Loser: Esteban Ocon
Ten years on from his F1 debut with Manor at the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix, Esteban Ocon may well be sleepwalking towards the end of his time in the sport.
The Frenchman had an underwhelming first year with Haas in 2025 and almost halfway into this current season he is still yet to spark to life.
Of the ten Grands Prix now completed in 2026, Ocon has beaten teammate Ollie Bearman just three times, in Japan, Monaco and Barcelona. On each of those occasions, Bearman retired from the race.
Spa was another disappointing one for the Frenchman, who suffered his sixth Q1 elimination in seven races. Incidentally, at 2-8, his Qualifying head-to-head record against Bearman is even worse than his race record.
After first-lap collisions with both Carlos Sainz and his own teammate, which ended with a trip through the gravel at Stavelot, Ocon ran anonymously well outside the top ten all Sunday afternoon.
He finished down in 17th, just about on the lead lap, and now has one fewer race left to prove he ought to remain on the grid for 2027.
Having signed a “multi-year deal” with Haas prior to the 2025 season, it is not certain whether Ocon’s contract expires at the end of this season, but it is clear that Haas are not short of alternative drivers.
Jack Doohan, who replaced the Frenchman at Alpine, is the team’s current reserve driver, while Honda-backed Yuki Tsunoda and F2 driver Rafael Câmara have also already been mooted as potential replacements.
Loser: Aston Martin
Every time it seems that Aston Martin must have hit rock bottom, a brand new, even more embarrassing statistic pops up.
The fact that Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were the two slowest cars in Qualifying for a fifth consecutive race was to be expected, and the fact that they were two seconds slower even than the Cadillacs is by now little shock, especially on the longest circuit on the calendar.
What was truly egregious, though, was the percentage gap to pole, with Alonso — the faster of the two Astons — 5.41% slower than Antonelli’s time in Q3. Even Manor in 2015 (+ 5.37%) and HRT in 2012 (+ 5.07%), with two of the most uncompetitive F1 cars in recent memory, were closer to the leading pace at Spa.
A huge caveat is Aston Martin’s lack of upgrades compared to rivals. Ferrari were the only other team not to bring a single new component to Belgium. We have known for some time that they are bringing a swathe of upgrades to this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, and while they won’t be competing for pole, some semblance of competitiveness is absolutely essential.
Edited by Marit Everett
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