Antonelli wins Spa as Ferrari presses and Russell exits early
Kimi Antonelli’s sixth win in 10 races stretched his F1 lead, while George Russell’s power woes and Ferrari’s pace shaped a busy Belgian GP.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
Kimi Antonelli left Spa-Francorchamps with another win, a 45-point championship lead and a fresh reminder that Mercedes has F1’s form driver, according to ESPN’s report from the Belgian Grand Prix.
The 19-year-old Mercedes driver won Sunday’s race for his sixth victory in 10 grands prix this season. ESPN reported that Antonelli had not won since Monaco, but his pace in Belgium was strong enough to recover after the timing of a virtual safety car helped Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc move into the lead.
Leclerc’s spell in front lasted until lap 34. Antonelli spent 14 laps cutting into the Ferrari’s advantage before passing on the run to Les Combes, ESPN reported.
Antonelli said after the race that his momentum had remained despite recent setbacks, including reliability problems that left him without points in Spain and at Silverstone. “I just need to maximize the performance every time and try to do my best whenever I get in the car,” he said.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff pointed to Antonelli’s calm approach as the part of his second F1 season that had stood out. Wolff said the teenager’s debriefs stay focused on identifying problems, solving them and moving on, whether a session has gone well or badly.
Mercedes had a far rougher Sunday on the other side of the garage. ESPN reported that George Russell’s battery readout showed 0% as he crested Raidillon on the first lap after an unexplained energy recovery failure at Turn 1.
That left Russell about 35% short of the energy level he should have had at that point, according to ESPN. The two Ferraris then used their battery power to go by him on the Kemmel Straight.
Russell tried to pass Lewis Hamilton around the outside at Les Combes, where ESPN reported Hamilton briefly lost grip and clipped the Mercedes. Russell spun into the gravel and retired from the race.
Russell said the contact with Hamilton was a racing incident, but added that he should not have been in that position. Wolff said the power problem was “100%” on Mercedes and said Russell was not to blame.
The race followed a frustrating qualifying for Russell, who also appeared short of electric power compared with Antonelli. Wolff said Mercedes had found an engine-related issue that cost Russell energy up to Turn 18 and accounted for just over half of the 0.367-second gap between the two Mercedes drivers.
Ferrari’s Belgian pace gave Mercedes something else to watch. ESPN reported that Silverstone and Spa were both expected to expose Ferrari’s power deficit, yet the team scored 25 more points than Mercedes across the two races.
Leclerc said Ferrari expected to be “very far back” at Spa, possibly by four or five tenths. He said that was true in qualifying, but the race pace was closer than anticipated.
Belgium also sharpened concerns about F1’s 2026 cars on classic circuits. ESPN reported that energy deployment dominated qualifying, with battery use on the straights shaping lap times at Spa.
Max Verstappen, who qualified second, said: “It’s a different Spa.” He said much of sector two was being run on engine power without battery help, comparing the output to Formula 3 levels with F1 downforce.
According to ESPN, Verstappen was 35 kph, or 21 mph, slower through Pouhon than in last year’s qualifying and 3.775 seconds slower over the lap. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said simulations before 2026 had already shown that long, energy-hungry tracks would change character under the current rules.
The Hungarian Grand Prix is next, marking the season’s midway point. ESPN reported that, on paper, Ferrari should be better suited to the Hungaroring than it was to Spa.
This story draws on original reporting from ESPN.com.