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BBC Sport – Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli re-established the comfortable championship lead that had been eroded in the past three races with victory in the Belgian Grand Prix while team-mate George Russell crashed out.
The Italian fought back from a delay caused by a virtual safety-car period to catch and pass Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for his sixth win in 10 races this season.
Russell, meanwhile, was taken out in a collision with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap and has dropped to third place in the standings, 50 points behind Antonelli.
Hamilton was re-promoted to second place in the championship, five points ahead of Russell with a fourth-place finish.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took the final podium place.
The key stories of a surprisingly compelling race were:
More bad luck for Russell as the gains he had made in recent races were wiped out within seconds of the start
The virtual safety car that gave Leclerc an unexpected shot at a second consecutive victory
The VSC also affecting Lando Norris, who had been looking set for a podium challenge after a penalty left him 13th on the grid
Russell ‘not going to blame Lewis’ for collision
Antonelli initially looked set to deliver on the pre-race expectations and dominate comfortably at the front following his impressive pole position on Saturday.
Clever driving on the first lap solved his concerns about being passed on the run up the hill to Les Combes, when he let Verstappen past him into Eau Rouge and then slipstreamed back into the lead up the following Kemmel straight.
Behind him, Russell went into Les Combes side by side with Hamilton, trying to pass the Ferrari around the outside.
Russell was ahead going into the corner, but a wobble from Hamilton caused by the airflow to his front wing being disrupted by the fighting Antonelli, Verstappen and Leclerc in front of him, meant he tagged the Mercedes, which spun into the gravel trap and into retirement.
An emotional Russell said: “I came out of Turn One, for whatever reason I was 30-40% down on my battery. I just totally got swamped up by three cars.
“Incident with Lewis, I have not really seen it. But I thought probably a racing incident. I am not going to blame Lewis. If things were normal, I would have been battling with Lewis, battling with Kimi and Max.
“It is one thing after another, after another, after another. Not good enough on all regards so try and reset again. I’ve done it enough times this season and I’ll see what we can do.”
Antonelli measured his pace carefully in the opening stint, looking after his tyres, until being told to speed up as his pit stop loomed.
Over the course of lap 17, he demonstrated how much pace he had in hand when he extended his lead over Verstappen from 2.3 seconds to 3.5, before pitting on the following lap.
Two laps later, though, a virtual safety car (VSC) period for some debris on track gave Leclerc a cheap pit stop – it costs nearly half as much race time to stop under a safety car than under green-flag conditions – and Leclerc was able to stop for fresh tyres and rejoin still in front of Antonelli.
Norris by this point was in the lead, but Leclerc soon passed the McLaren on lap 26, and it was now a question as to how long it would take Antonelli to close the three-second gap to the Ferrari.
Antonelli was on his tail eight laps later and passed the Ferrari up the Kemmel straight on lap 34.
Leclerc was able to stay with Antonelli, whose lead never went over two seconds, and there was extra pressure from the fact the Mercedes driver was on the cusp of a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits too many times.
But Antonelli calmly kept things under control to cross the line just under two seconds ahead and retake control of the championship.
It was his first win since Monaco in early June, after a retirement in Spain, a third in Austria and a finish out of the points at the British Grand Prix.
Ferrari showed better race pace than expected and Leclerc’s second place was an impressive performance on the back of his win at Silverstone, which was helped by a component failure on Antonelli’s Mercedes.
Leclerc rode his luck by escaping a penalty for squeezing Oscar Piastri as the McLaren attacked him during the first stint, but an accomplished drive confirmed his revival after a sticky period over the early summer races.
Hamilton, though, was in the wars. The incident with Russell secured him a five-second penalty to be added at his pit stop, and when he did come in for fresh tyres, he was released before all the mechanics had moved out of the way.
Hamilton hit the mechanic on the front right tyre as he accelerated away, immediately radioing to check he was OK, which was confirmed by the team.
That incident will be investigated after the race, so another potential penalty hangs over Hamilton.
Hamilton, further exasperated when Ferrari failed to add the front wing he had wanted at the pit stop, recovered well from his delay to catch and pass McLaren’s Oscar Piastri for fourth, behind Verstappen, who consolidated third despite complaining his second set of tyres had no grip.
Norris drove expertly through the first stint, coolly moving through the midfield to challenge the top cars and take the lead as they pitted.
He was on course to potentially challenge the Ferraris on his alternate strategy of starting on the hard tyres rather than the mediums until the VSC.
He had to stay out because it was the wrong time to change tyres, the mediums too marginal to the end.
And that meant he lost a lot of time to the leaders as they caught him after their stops.
First Leclerc, then Antonelli and finally Verstappen passed him and he was only just ahead of Piastri – and being warned not to waste race time by racing him – when he finally stopped on lap 30, with 14 to go.
Norris was able to pass Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto for seventh but ran out of time to get Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar in sixth, crossing the line 0.7secs adrift of the Frenchman.
Racing Bulls’ British rookie Arvid Lindblad was ninth with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto taking the final point in 10th.
What’s next?
It’s the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring next weekend, the final race before Formula 1’s four-week summer break.
, https://nilepost.co.ug/sports/357551/antonelli-wins-to-extend-lead-after-russell-crashes-out
