Andrea Kimi Antonelli got himself back on the top-step of a Formula 1 podium for the first time since Monaco, after a commanding win at Spa. Here’s how the drivers fared at the Belgian Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver faltered at the start, reclaimed the lead, and lost it once again when the VSC came out. That said, he persisted with the W17 on his side and eventually broke Charles Leclerc’s resolute defence to win for the first time since the Monaco GP.
Kimi Antonelli: 10
Grid Position: P1, Race Result: P1
After a rough couple of outings, Antonelli was back at his best during the race weekend at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
On Saturday, he belted in a sensational pole lap, more than three-tenths clear of the next best car of Max Verstappen.
Come race day, he did get swallowed up by the Dutchman on the run up to Raidillon, on Lap 1, but quickly got himself back in the lead by the time they arrived at Les Combes.
A mid-race VSC did make his afternoon a bit trickier, relinquishing his lead to Leclerc. But his final stint saw him hunt the Monegasque down, and taking his sixth win of the season at the chequered flag.
What seemed like a title challenge wilting away, after Barcelona, Austria and Britain, became a resounding reminder of his title credentials after the Belgian GP, for the 19-year-old.
George Russell: N/A
Grid Position: P3, Race Result: DNF
It was an ominous weekend for Russell, as far as his championship hopes were concerned. The Briton was visibly lacking, compared to his team-mate, for pace in the sister W17, with Team Principal Toto Wolff conceding that his power unit was not performing as expected.
Well, his power unit didn’t have much to do on Sunday, as contact with Hamilton on Lap 1, at Les Combes, meant he beached his car and ended his afternoon.
Heading into the Hungarian GP, next weekend, Russell faces a 50-point deficit to Antonelli and a few question marks about his recent performances to resolve before the summer break.
Charles Leclerc: 9.5
Grid Position: P4, Race Result: P2
The Monegasque was clearly riding on the wave of his Silverstone triumph from two weeks ago.
Qualifying saw Leclerc secure the second-row of the grid and his cat-like reflexes off the line, on Sunday, saw him challenge the likes of Antonelli and Verstappen for the lead, on the opening lap.
He was able to take the outright lead of the 44-lap race after a well-timed VSC for him and Ferrari but the prowess of the W17 across the 7.004km-long track was no match for the Ferrari driver’s resilient defence.
In the end, Leclerc did extract the maximum from what the SF-26 could have offered against the supreme Mercedes, and took the chequered flag in P2.
A solid afternoon’s work for Leclerc, reinforcing his recent run of form as he starts to click with the car Ferrari has given him in 2026.
Lewis Hamilton: 8
Grid Position: P5, Race Result: P4
Hamilton has gotten himself back into second in the driver’s championship, after the Belgian GP, but that has more to do with Russell’s misfortunes than the Briton’s own prowess in the SF-26.
An underwhelming qualifying, from his own lofty 2026 standards, saw the seven-time World Champion getting his elbows out early at the start, on Sunday.
Contact at Les Combes sent Russell out, and earned the Ferrari driver a five-second time penalty. For a second weekend running, Hamilton was put up for a recovery drive after rubbing the stewards the wrong way.
But unlike Silverstone, Hamilton wasn’t able to get himself onto the podium. He suffered a slow(er) than usual stop, after Ferrari decided to double-stack under the VSC.
He later realised that his requested front-wing adjustment had not been applied. Moreover, he wasn’t happy with the strategy he had been handed by the Ferrari pit wall.
Notwithstanding, he did drive a solid race, not really going forwards but more importantly not going backwards.
And so, despite a solid fourth-placed finish, and Hamilton being the closest championship rival to Antonelli, the Ferrari driver would be looking for (a lot of) answers before the Hungarian GP.
Max Verstappen: 9
Grid Position: P2, Race Result: P3
It was a stellar return to form for the four-time World Champion, at a track that he counts amongst his favorites.
And though it wasn’t the Spa-Francorchamps he had driven in the past – owing to the inherent characteristics of the all-new power units, he was able to keep himself in podium contention all throughout the 44-lap race.
Verstappen did try an audacious move at Eau Rouge on Antonelli to get in the lead, on the first lap, but an empty battery meant he was swallowed up by the Mercedes and Ferrari, of Leclerc, into Les Combes – losing a lead he would not see again, on Sunday.
From thereon, it was Verstappen’s signature metronomic efficiency on display as he kept his rivals at bay.
A decisive move made to stick on Lando Norris, at Malmedy, on Lap 29 gave him P3, and he took it all the way to the chequered flag to take his 130th, and Red Bull’s 300th podium in F1.
Isack Hadjar: 9.5
Grid Position: P21, Race Result: P6
After Silverstone, Hadjar deemed his sixth-placed result as a “waste of a race”. But after his Spa heroics, he should be very proud of himself.
Starting from 21st, owing to a massive grid penalty, the French-Algerian driver executed one of the most sublime recovery drives of 2026 to take the chequered flag in sixth, at Spa.
By his own admission, if only he gets a “clean” race weekend, he can fight toe-to-toe with the front-runners, and there’s no denying it in light of his recent performances.
Heading into the Hungarian GP weekend, with the RB22 slated to perform better than at Spa “on paper”, could Hadjar break the Red Bull 2nd seat curse once and for all with his maiden F1 win?
It’s looking likelier with each passing race weekend, that’s for sure.
Oscar Piastri: 7.5
Grid Position: P6, Race Result: P5
The Australian may have found an arch nemesis in Leclerc, on track, as for the second successive weekend it was contact with the Monegasque that ruined an otherwise solid race for the McLaren driver.
An early race squabble at Les Combes dealt Piastri some significant floor damage. It was only after a front-wing adjustment that Piastri found an agreeable balance on his car. But by that time, despite closing in on Hamilton in fourth, he was consigned to fifth at the chequered flag.
Lando Norris: 8
Grid Position: P13, Race Result: P7
Norris decided to take a grid penalty in favor of new power unit elements on his MCL40 heading into the 44-lap race at Spa.
Therefore, despite posting the third-fastest lap of Q3, on Saturday, the McLaren driver started the race from 13th on the grid.
Qualifying showed that Norris had inherent pace in his car, and the race start saw the Briton capitalising on that. The opening lap melee had allowed Norris into the top 10. He slowly chipped away, picking places lap after after.
Starting on the Hards as he was, Norris was then able to extend his first stint, even leading the race at one point of time.
But all that good work quickly evaporated once he dove into the pits, and a slow stop drastically altered his afternoon as he rejoined the race in eighth.
In the end, despite a mega first stint, he finished behind the Red Bull of Hadjar at the chequered flag – dulling the shine off of what otherwise was a pretty decent recovery drive for the reigning F1 World Champion.
Gabriel Bortoleto: 7.5
Grid Position: P8, Race Result: P8
Bortoleto made one of those rare appearances in Q3, at Spa, on Saturday and backed it up with a solid drive in the points, on Sunday.
The Brazilian’s eighth-placed finish at the chequered flag was not only his second successive points scoring result but also a sign of ascendance over his more experienced team-mate, Hulkenberg.
Nico Hulkenberg: 6
Grid Position: P12, Race Result: P13
The German driver himself summed the race up by saying he had “paid the price for starting too far back.”
On Saturday, gearbox issues impeded his qualifying, and come race day, a poor start only made his afternoon a tougher battle to fight.
An just like that, for the second weekend in succession, Hulkenberg was out-qualified by Bortoleto, and while the Brazilian celebrated a well-earned points finish, Hulkenberg had to walk away from Spa empty handed.
Arvid Lindblad: 7
Grid Position: P7, Race Result: P9
Lindblad fared better than his team-mate, qualifying with the eighth fastest lap of Q3, and elevated a spot after Norris’ grid penalty was applied.
And while the British-Swedish driver was “happy”, deeming the Belgian GP a “very strong weekend” for himself, he would have been hoping for a better result than ninth to jump Alpine in the Constructors’.
Notwithstanding, from a person point of view, it was yet another solid result for the rookie, extending his scoring streak, active since Monaco, to five weekends running, after Spa.
Liam Lawson: 6.5
Grid Position: P9, Race Result: P12
Lawson’s streak of Q3 appearances came to an end, during qualifying, on Saturday for the Belgian GP. That said, with P5 in the Constructors” in touching distance of the Faenza-based team, Lawson started the race from 9th after the grid penalties for the likes of Hadjar and Norris were applied.
But despite this advantage, Lawson was only able to muster a 12th-placed finish at the chequered flag.
As it turns out, Lawson was nursing a power unit issue of sorts throughout the race.
“Every single wheel-to-wheel combat I had today, I lost down the straights. I don’t know what else I was meant to do,” he said over his team radio comms after the chequered flag fell.
Franco Colapinto: 7.5
Grid Position: P11, Race Result: P10
Heading into the race weekend at Spa, Alpine Managing Director Steve Nielsen had set out certain objectives for the Argentinian to strive for if he wanted a seat with the team in 2027.
One of these was to maintain his proximity to team-mate Gasly. And during qualifying, Colapinto did exactly that.
Despite being able to only post the 13th fastest lap of the session, he was within a tenth of his team-mate, in 12th.
Come race day, Colapinto had his elbows out, and a mid-race Hakkinen-esque move on Liam Lawson and Gasly saw the 23-year-old muscle his way into the top 10, at Les Combes, and that’s where he finished at the chequered flag.
Pierre Gasly: 7
Grid Position: P10, Race Result: P11
Gasly was rightly “disappointed” with how his afternoon panned out at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. A slow getaway off the line cost him dearly and a slow stop, thereafter, only exacerbated his plight.
The Enstone-based team had come into the race weekend with a lighter upgrade package, and it proved so with Gasly spending a good chunk of the race unable to find his way through one of the Racing Bulls (heavily upgraded of course) of Liam Lawson – the team’s prime contenders for P5 in the Constructors’ standings.
And so, with Gasly finishing just outside the points, in 11th, the Anglo-French marque are now tied at 61 points with Racing Bulls for the ‘best-of-the-rest’ title, 10 rounds into 2026.
Oliver Bearman: 5
Grid Position: P14, Race Result: P14
Despite continuing his prevalence over his team-mate Ocon, Bearman has not been able to threaten the upper echelons of the midfield, namely Racing Bulls and Alpine.
At Spa, the Briton was embroiled in an unfortunate scrap with Ocon, on the first lap. Not only did it compromise his team-mate’s afternoon, Bearman himself wasn’t able to make any significant inroads forwards, taking the chequered flag in 14th – his starting grid slot.
Esteban Ocon: 4
Grid Position: P16, Race Result: P17
Ocon has been overwhelmed by his younger team-mate, Bearman, this season.
After qualifying, at Spa, on Saturday, the Frenchman saw himself knocked out of Q1 for the fifth time in six races as Bearman extended his lead in the Haas qualifying head-to-head to 8-2.
But though Ocon only posted the 18th fatest lap of the race, grid penalties for Hadjar and Sainz meant he started the 44-lap race from 16th.
Matters were made worse for Ocon, at the start of the race, when contact with Bearman, and then, Sainz meant he could only muster a 17th-placed finish at the chequered flag.
Heading into the Hungarian GP weekend, Ocon has a lot of unresolved issues on his Ferrari power unit that he and Haas need to debunk.
Alex Albon: 5
Grid Position: P15, Race Result: P15
F1’s development battle has seen Williams start on a backfoot against its midfield rivals.
The FW48 has become a staple of Q2, really not having enough to threaten the top 10 shootout. But Albon got a great push off the line, climbing up to 12th at the Safety Car restart.
By his own admission, it were a “pretty boring” 44 laps at Spa, and Albon needs to regroup with the Grove-based team urgently to resolve its performance issues as the sport inches closer to the summer break, in a week’s time.
Carlos Sainz: 5.5
Grid Position: P19, Race Result: P16
The Spaniard wasn’t enjoying his time around the 7.004km-long Spa-Francorchamps circuit, especially owing to the de-rating prevalent on the current generation of power units.
That said, he was able to get himself ahead of his team-mate, Albon, on Saturday. But a power unit related grid drop meant he started the 44-lap race from 19th on the grid.
This did complicate his afternoon, getting caught in an opening lap melee with Esteban Ocon and taking front-wing damage.
From there on, he did build up on his race pace, taking P16 – not a wholly uneventful outing for the Spaniard at Spa, but one he would rapidly want to forget before the race weekend at the Hungaroring.
Valtteri Bottas: 4
Grid Position: P17, Race Result: P18
The Finnish racing driver seems to have finally found his feet with Cadillac’s package, as he closed down his performance deficit to Perez in the sister Cadillac.
For the second weekend running, he out-qualified his team-mate. A slow start off the line, however, compromised his afternoon.
And while he turned out to be inconsequential to Cadillac’s bid to bag their first F1 World Championship points, he did play a crucial role in dictating the outcome of the race win – with Bottas holding Charles Leclerc, innocently, under blue flags, to allow Kimi Antonelli to close the Ferrari down and take the race lead to the chequered flag.
Sergio Perez: N/A
Grid Position: P18, Race Result: DNF
The Mexican racing driver has endured a tough comeback to the sport with F1’s 11th team, this season.
Cadillac’s Austrian GP package has seemingly unlocked pace in the car, but while it has been enough to break away from Aston Martin, it would appear that there is much to gain on the midfield pack for Perez.
At Spa, he was out-qualified by Bottas and an “unfortunate” rear-suspension failure meant he was forced to retire mid-way through the 44-lap race.
Fernando Alonso: 2
Grid Position: P22, Race Result: P19
Alonso has perhaps consigned his fate to the misgivings of the AMR26. For the second weekend running, the two-time World Champion was out-qualified by his team-mate, Stroll.
And while the Spaniard did take the chequered flag, as rare as those sightings have been for him in 2026, he was two laps down after the 44-lap race.
Lance Stroll: N/A
Grid Position: 20, Race Result: DNF
Much like Silverstone, the only silver lining for the Canadian racing driver was his continued qualifying prowess against team-mate Alonso, at Spa. Oh, and yes, he did not lock out the last-row of the grid this time, courtesy of Hadjar’s grid drop.
The race, well, was, once again, over pretty quickly for Stroll, who dove into the pits to retire his AMR26.
READ MORE – Kimi Antonelli enjoys his Spa retreat with resilient F1 Belgian GP win
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