19-year-old Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli took first place after 44 laps at the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps. Charles Leclerc finished second and Max Verstappen third.
A chaotic opening tour
Starting from pole position, Antonelli maintained his advantage at the first corner, but Verstappen overtook him at the second to take the lead. However, at the next corner, Antonelli regained the lead, and then Leclerc unexpectedly overtook Verstappen to move into second place. During this chaos, Lewis Hamilton made contact with George Russell's left rear tire; Russell spun and ended up in the gravel trap, forcing him to retire on the first lap. On the same opening lap, Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon also made contact; Ocon went off track but managed to rejoin the race. A yellow flag was shown and the safety car was deployed while Russell's car was being removed from the track. During the yellow flag period, Bearman, Isack Hadjar, Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas, and Ocon completed their pit stops.
The race heated up again on lap 5 when the safety car was deployed. On lap 6, Verstappen overtook Leclerc on the straight to regain second place. Hamilton, however, received a 5-second penalty on lap 9 for the Russell contact that was under review on lap 4. On lap 8, Piastri made contact with Leclerc as he approached; the McLaren driver lost pace, and Hamilton moved up to 4th place. On lap 12, Lando Norris overtook Lindblad to move into 6th position.
Pit stop strategy changed the course of the race.
On lap 18, Verstappen made his first pit stop and rejoined the track in 6th place, ahead of his teammate Perez. Leclerc, who had moved into the lead, began chasing Antonelli with a 5-second lead. A virtual safety car was deployed on the same lap to collect track debris. Antonelli, who pitted during the safety period, went very close to the barriers at the pit entrance and rejoined in 5th place. On lap 20, both Ferrari drivers completed their pit stops; Leclerc managed to overtake Antonelli. Hamilton, however, hit a mechanic while exiting the pit, lost time, and continued in 6th place.
The virtual safety car was lifted on lap 21. Norris temporarily took the lead; however, Leclerc overtook him early in lap 23 and continued to climb to the top. On lap 26, Antonelli overtook Norris on the straight to move into second place and attempted to close the gap of approximately 3.2 seconds to Leclerc. On lap 29, Verstappen overtook Norris to take third place. On lap 32, Antonelli reduced the gap to 1 second.
Antonelli finished with a significant lead in the final laps.
On lap 34, Antonelli overtook Leclerc on the straight to regain the lead and quickly extended his advantage to about one second. Leclerc closed the gap to half a second on lap 35, but began losing time in the corners in the following laps. On lap 38, Antonelli increased the gap to 1.2 seconds, and on lap 43 to 2.5 seconds. On lap 40, Lewis Hamilton overtook Oscar Piastri to move up to fourth place. Antonelli maintained his pace on the final lap and crossed the finish line first in the Belgian GP. Leclerc finished second, and four-time world champion Verstappen took third place on the podium.