Get all your news in one place.

100's of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100's of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Motorsport

Filip Cleeren

Winners and losers from F1's Belgian Grand Prix

George Russell Kimi Antonelli Charles Leclerc Gabriel Bortoleto Lewis Hamilton Max Verstappen Mercedes Oscar Piastri Ferrari Lando Norris

One week on from Kimi Antonelli hitting trouble and George Russell being brought back into the fight, the tables turned once more in the Ardennes hills. Meanwhile, some of Mercedes' closest rivals all turned up with improved performance to add a little zest to the 2026 season.

Winner: Kimi Antonelli

He's really untouchable, isn't he? No matter what F1 2026 throws at him, young Antonelli always seems to have an answer. Antonelli's start wasn't quite as dramatically poor as team-mate Russell's, but Antonelli also faced significant pressure as he saw four-time world champion Max Verstappen swoop past through Eau Rouge.

Had Verstappen overplayed his hand, burning up too much precious battery power to grab the lead in front of legions of partisan fans? Perhaps so, but Antonelli made short work of reclaiming the lead, just like it felt inevitable that he was going to be cleanly picking off Charles Leclerc to secure his sixth grand prix win of the season. If his pole lap was outstanding, his Sunday performance was less flashy but just veteran-like. At 19 years of age, that's every bit as impressive.

Loser: George Russell

George Russell, Mercedes (Photo by: John Thys / AFP via Getty Images)

Just when Russell was handed a lifeline through Antonelli's Silverstone woes, the Briton copped another uppercut in Spa. It was a double blow rather than one fell swoop, really, as Russell cut a frustrated figure after qualifying when his power unit's deployment algorithm cost him straight line speed compared to Antonelli.

On Sunday his power unit then decided against regenerating energy at Turn 1, leaving Russell a sitting duck on the straight before getting tagged by Lewis Hamilton. Russell wasn't even that upset with Hamilton's touch, but with being put in the line of fire to begin with following the latest Mercedes power unit glitch.

Sunday was all on Mercedes, but the truth is that Antonelli has also been extremely difficult for Russell to keep up with. And that will have to happen sooner rather than later if he wants to stay in the hunt.

Winner: Ferrari

Sunday was anything but a clean day for Ferrari. Leclerc got away with squeezing Oscar Piastri early on, and benefitted from a neatly timed virtual safety car. Meanwhile Hamilton was pinged for understeering into a luckless Russell, suffered damage and subsequently hit more trouble during the pitstop as a mechanic got hit on his way out of the pit box.

So for Leclerc and Hamilton to come away with second and fourth, on a power hungry circuit that was expected to expose Ferrari's deployment weakness, is an enormous win for Ferrari, and just the type of consistency that underpins a potential championship run. On performance, Mercedes is still a step ahead, but Ferrari has shown to be a much more reliable force so far.

(Photo by: Clive Rose / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Loser: Oscar Piastri

Piastri has been putting on a brave face for a while, but the otherwise unflappable Aussie is also done pretending these power unit regulations are worth staying quiet about. Fifth-place was a solid day of damage limitation for Piastri and McLaren, with Lando Norris overcoming a grid penalty to take seventh, as the MCL40 was more competitive in Spa than anticipated.

The bigger worry for Piastri is that he has been struggling to match Norris for performance in recent races, especially on Saturday. Piastri has had a tendency to start slower and build up to Norris' pace over a race weekend, but hydraulic issues on Friday hampered him, before being pegged back by the vagaries of the 2026 Mercedes power unit in qualifying through no apparent fault of his own. It's the continuation of a frustrating summer.

Winner: Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi

With Audi's known power unit deficiencies, banking on the German manufacturer to scoop up points at Spa - of all places - felt rather fanciful. But in Bortoleto's hands the silver machine made it into Q3 for the first time in four rounds, and into the points for the second weekend in a row.

Bortoleto was helped by the timing of the VSC to get ahead of Racing Bulls man Arvid Lindblad, but the Brazilian was rapid regardless. It may well have been Bortoleto's most impressive performance yet. At least so far, because the Brazilian appears to keep improving with every weekend.

After having wasted a few opportunities to add to its two points from Melbourne, Audi has now scored eight points in eight days, bringing it within one unit of struggling Williams.

(Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images)

Loser: Aston Martin

Things had to get worse before they get better for Aston Martin, and its Spa performance was the most brutal of the bunch so far with a car that is starved of aero upgrades. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were driving around at speeds neatly halfway between F1 and F2.

The good news is that upgrades are finally on the way in Hungary, and that Spa will be the last time either driver has taken the wheel of this cursed iteration of the AMR26. The bad news is the gap is so big that even a healthy upgrade won't realistically be enough to turn its fortunes around. It will need some help from the new Honda engine in Zandvoort as well.

(Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images)

Winner: Red Bull

Amid all the noise and fanfare around Verstappen's future, Red Bull has quietly delivered a few solid upgrades that have turned the RB22 into a car that it can go to war with, and its hybrid weakness wasn't as pronounced as first feared following a poor showing in Silverstone.

Verstappen could have been second on merit if it hadn't been for the VSC boost for Leclerc, while Isack Hadjar delivered one of his best afternoons for the big team with his comeback race to seventh.

"It's certainly his best race with us," team boss Laurent Mekies concurred. "Every time he goes out in that car he's making a step forward and it's good to have two very strong cars now."

For a squad that has had a few narratives go against it in recent weeks and months, with more key staffers like Paul Monaghan reported as leaving, it has at least been able to answer on track.