Kimi Antonelli passes Charles Leclerc to win Belgian Grand Prix after George Russell retires

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Kimi Antonelli won a thrilling Belgian Grand Prix with a stunning drive, one that threatened to be impeded by the rain.

Kimi Antonelli was quick out of the blocks to maintain his P1 position, but it didn’t take long for Max Verstappen to take the lead.

However, all chaos broke loose as George Russell and Lewis Hamilton made contact, which allowed their teammates, Antonelli and Charles Leclerc, to get past Verstappen

Hamilton stayed in the race, but Russell had to end his race, prompting a safety car on the first lap. Furthermore, Esteban Ocon suffered damage that forced the safety car to stay out there.

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It was entirely three laps later when the safety car finally ended, but Hamilton was immediately put under investigation for the incident with Russell.

Hamilton managed to secure P4 for himself ahead of Oscar Piastri, but it didn’t last long, as Piastri managed to snatch the position back.

A little further behind, Lando Norris, who started the race in P13, already managed to earn his way into the points, moving into P10.

Antonelli and Leclerc continued their battle at the top of the pack, as they fought to take the early lead in the race.

But not far behind Leclerc was Verstappen, who managed to snatch P2 back from Leclerc with a fastest lap time on Lap 6.

Seeing Leclerc this vulnerable gave Piastri the motivation to run right after him, as he began ramping up his speed and chasing down the Monegasque driver.

Leclerc was up for the challenge, as he cut Piastri off with some strong defensive driving on Lap 8. Unfortunately, Leclerc and Piastri came close together and made contact, leading to some debris from the Ferrari to come off.

Piastri was immediately on the radio, complaining about Leclerc not giving him a car-length’s room. Unfortunately, this frustration gave Hamilton a window to snatch P4 back.

Things were going a little bit better for his teammate, as Norris managed to get himself up to P8, as he began hunting down the pair of Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad.

As Hamilton’s five-second time penalty was confirmed, Norris quickly moved into P7, as his best performance of the season continued.

And right after that, Norris made it a pair, as he overtook Lindblad to take P6, as he looked to hunt down the remaining drivers and earn an unlikely podium.

Despite concerns about both drivers getting penalties, Hamilton and Leclerc began battling for P3, creating some real concern in the Ferrari paddock.

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While Hamilton continued to chase down Leclerc, he told Ferrari officials that he was faster and should be given a chance to surpass his teammate.

A pair of pit stops from Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz allowed Isack Hadjar to take P10 for himself, only for him to move up further as Liam Lawson entered the pits.

Leclerc got lucky, as both he and Piastri’s collision from earlier was deemed as needing no further action from the stewards a third into the race.

Max Verstappen’s pit stop on Lap 17 proved to be too early, as there was a quick virtual safety car that gave several teams enough of a gap to strategise their pits in the tyre window.

Another intra-team battle emerged, as Piastri and Norris began battling each other for third place. In the end, Norris managed to earn back P3 as his pace was just too much for the Australian.

Piastri quickly managed to snatch the position back, but it was just as the virtual safety car was introduced again, giving several teams a strong pit window.

This was a huge reprieve for Ferrari, as it allowed them to have Lewis Hamilton serve his five-second penalty under the safety car.

As both drivers went into the pits, Lando Norris managed to take the lead in the race, followed by Leclerc and Antonelli, as McLaren and Ferrari seemed poised to win the race.

Leclerc managed to take the lead from Norris, as Antonelli started to put in some rapid lap times as he eyed yet another race win.

The championship leader didn’t waste time trying to get past the reigning champion, but Norris managed to hold him off briefly.

But he wasn’t able to stop the young Italian for long, as the age of his hard tyres began showing their age compared to Antonelli’s younger tyres.

Just a few laps later, Verstappen took a risky move to take P3 away from Norris, as he relied on his signature late-braking to snatch the spot away.

After 31 laps, Norris went into the pits, but a poorly timed pitstop from McLaren forced the world champion to come out behind Gabriel Bortoleto in P8.

After losing out to Norris earlier in the race, Lawson was struggling to break back into the points, finding himself in P11 behind Franco Colapinto.

Norris managed to get past the Brazilian Audi driver fairly quickly, moving into P7 as he looked to mount an excellent comeback after a seven-second pitstop almost derailed his race.

Further ahead, Antonelli looked to take back the lead from Leclerc, who had complained earlier about issues with the gearshift.

Unlike previous laps, Leclerc didn’t try to squeeze Antonelli off the road and allowed him to take the lead, thinking discretion was the better part of valour and letting the youngster get past him.

However, Leclerc didn’t back off, consistently putting pressure on Antonelli as he hunted down the race leader in the closing stretch of the race.

Meanwhile, Oscar Piastri had to fend off the oncoming Lewis Hamilton, who kept chasing him down for fourth place, but he couldn’t keep the seven-time world champion at bay for long.

At the lower end of the points positions, Colapinto, Gasly, and Lawson were fighting it out for 10th place, with just under two seconds between all three to separate them.

Unfortunately for Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas, their latest run around Spa was more of the same, as they found themselves at the back of the pack by a comfortable margin.

Kimi Antonelli wins the Belgian Grand Prix! What was your main takeaway from the race? 🏁

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In the end, Antonelli managed to win the race, with Leclerc and Verstappen closing the podium spots. Hamilton, Piastri, Hadjar, Norris, Bortoleto, Lindblad, and Colapinto closed out the points positions.