Kimi Antonelli had to overcome a lucky Leclerc on his way to securing his 6th win of the season at Spa-Francochamps.
Antonelli got off the grid smoothly and managed to maintain his lead on the short run up to turn 1, but Verstappen would go on to use a lot of battery on the run down to Eau Rouge, taking the lead by the time the pair reached the corner. However, Antonelli was able to use his battery to slingshot back into the lead down the Kemmel Straight, also defending from a surging Leclerc at Les Combes.
A safety car was brought out on lap 1 following an incident between former teammates Russell and Hamilton. The pair were stuck behind the top 3 heading into Les Combes, and while Russell had left enough space for Hamilton, a snap of oversteer from the Ferrari due to dirty air had caused contact with Russell and spun the Mercedes round, taking him out of the race. Hamilton would receive a 5 second penalty as a result of the contact.
Racing would resume on lap 4, and Hamilton would look to climb up to 4th immediately making a move into turn 1, but Piastri would have enough battery on the exit to make a move before Eau Rouge, and Hamilton didn’t have any battery left to re-overtake into Les Combes.
Verstappen had been following Leclerc closely throughout lap 4, and on lap 5 had found himself close enough to utilise the battery and overtake the Ferrari ahead for 2nd place going into Les Combes.
Oscar Piastri found himself starting to challenge for the podium positions by lap 7, initially looking to overtake into the bus stop chicane. Heading onto lap 8, Piastri would get a good slipstream down the Kemmel Straight, but would be forced onto the outside. Leclerc squeezed Piastri very tightly, and the two made contact, seemingly causing some damage on the front wing. This would provide Hamilton an opportunity to climb up to 4th, which he would take on the next lap, and Leclerc would receive no penalty for the incident despite the contact.
Verstappen would be the first of the front runners to come into the pits at the end of lap 17, going onto hards for what should be his only pit stop of the race.
The timing of his stop initially seemed pretty awful, as a Virtual Safety Car had been brought out as soon as he left the pit lane. However, the VSC was pretty brief, and no one was able to make use of the time gain that would’ve come with a pit stop at that time, even though Antonelli would pit at the end of lap 18.
Another VSC would come out on lap 20, and this time others were able to take advantage, most notably the Ferraris and especially Leclerc, who would take the effective lead of the race behind Lando Norris, who was yet to pit.
Norris on his old tyres had become something of a rolling roadblock, with the front runners around him having significantly more pace than him. Leclerc was able to pass pretty easily, but it would take Antonelli a bit more time to do so, leaving a gap of 3 seconds to the leader by the time that the championship leader got back to 2nd on track.
Norris would finally come into the pits at the end of lap 30, and it was a poor stop from the McLaren garage, as a delay in the change of tyres would cause him to fall behind Bortoleto in 8th, though he would make quick work to get back up to 7th.
Antonelli had been working his way closer to Leclerc in the laps since passing Norris, and had managed to find himself within 1 second of the Ferrari going into lap 34. He would wait until after Eau Rouge to deploy his battery, and made a rudimentary move down the Kemmel striaght to regain the lead of the race.
Leclerc was not giving up the lead so easily though, and would stick within a 1 second gap to Antonelli to ensure he continued to get extra boost from his battery. This would last for a while, but Leclerc was slowly losing touch, and by lap 39 he would be outside of that crucial 1 second gap.
As one Ferrari fell away from a battle, another entered one, as Hamilton was getting closer and closer to Piastri in 4th, and on lap 40 Hamilton would make the move up to 4th on track, though with a possible penalty looming over his head for an unsafe release during his pit stop.
Leclerc would still try keep as close as he could towards the end of the race, but ultimately Antonelli was able to build a gap of over 2 seconds by the time he drove past the chequered flag to take his 6th win of the season.
Antonelli’s gap at the top of the championship has now grown to 45 points as of the end of the race, with Hamilton overtaking Russell for 2nd place in the championship, though the outcome of Hamilton’s investigation could still increase that gap further.
The next race is the Hungarian Grand Prix, which will take place in one week on Sunday, July 26, and will be the last race weekend before the annual summer break.
