The Kimi Antonelli show, also known as the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix, took place in remarkably sunny and dry conditions throughout, if occasionally interrupted by an actual safety car deployment on lap one to clear a beached car, and a few more virtual safety cars to clear up high-tech litter from the racing surface.

The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps has been developed and polished beautifully in almost every respect, even if in time-honoured fashion getting into and moving around the venue seems to have new systems and rules every day. To be fair, there is a huge area and a great many fans to be controlled.

As usual I was out and about trackside on Friday during practice and the cars looked very fast and impressive in front of the numerous grandstands. I’ve been racing here for 45 years, and I couldn’t quite believe my eyes on the scale of the crowd.

It was enjoyable to watch the drivers jockey an excess of power over grip through medium-speed chicane exits, but like Silverstone there was a hidden story alongside the trackside ‘wow’, and the drivers were very restrained through the event not to complain too much about it.

We long ago lost Eau Rouge and Raidillon as corners to refined high-downforce cars with grippy tyres and a manicured racetrack, meaning from the turn one La Source hairpin to the long haul up to the turn five Les Combes chicane is effectively a straight.

But with the need to charge the hybrid batteries on this fast track, the longest on the calendar, just as with Copse, Becketts, and Stowe at Silverstone, as the engine is used to charge those batteries the arrival speeds into corners like Pouhon at Spa are dulled such that the corner effectively becomes a bendy straight too.

On such circuits we have lost the driver-defining, and thrilling, high-speed corners. It was the same in Suzuka.

Luckily in Budapest this weekend it will not be a problem at all, and normal service will be resumed, although there are no high-speed corners worth their name.

We have known for a while about these issues, and they are being addressed where possible for 2027 and again in 2028, but the last two races have unequivocally confirmed that we need a major power unit philosophy change much sooner than later.

There were always going to be teething problems reliability-wise but as we hurtle towards the summer break the words ‘deployment issues’ and ‘no battery’ are rather too prominent.

Russell’s Mercedes problems and the ‘racing incident’ debate

George Russell is clearly not a direct descendant of the Alessandro Volta, Michael Faraday, Thomas Edison or Nikola Tesla families because he never seems to have the right battery power at the moment.

Whether that is missing straight-line speed compared to his team-mate Antonelli in qualifying, for whatever mystery reasons, or climbing the hill to turn five on the opening lap.

Antonelli got away well at the start and Verstappen’s Red Bull launched unusually nicely too. But Max appeared to pull a cunning move by powering past before Eau Rouge at the bottom of the hill, but his post-race comments say that his car had too much battery deployment suggesting he had nothing to do with that cunning plan…

Both Mercedes of Antonelli and Russell started the race with less battery charge than needed, and it particularly hurt Russell on the long climb to the critical turn five braking point, and he was mugged by three cars including Lewis Hamilton.

George braked impressively late trying to make up for his poor arrival speed and was on the outside of Lewis, leaving racing room. Lewis, close behind Max, slid a little wide and contacted George who spun into retirement, and at the same time taking a massive hit to his championship comeback chances.

More referee leeway is given on the first lap with the pack inevitably in close company along with full fuel and sub-optimal brake and tyre temperatures. I called it a racing incident in commentary, unless the stewards were satisfied that Lewis had lost control of his car, which didn’t appear to be the case.

George recovered to the pits by scooter and called it a racing incident whilst far more distraught about his ongoing power issues.

Ferrari called it a racing incident, I guess you could say they would, and most people I know agreed. But with whatever extra information the stewards had they applied a five-second penalty mitigated down from the standard 10 seconds. It perhaps cost Lewis a podium but that’s speculative.

Later in the race, Charles Leclerc would squeeze Oscar Piastri in the T5 braking zone and there was contact which damaged Piastri’s aero parts, to an extent. For me this was a clear movement in the braking zone which can mean anything from a warning flag to a full pit-lane drive through penalty in the guidelines.

The stewards, though, decided it was about relative front axle positions and who had the right to the corner. Leclerc’s telling reaction when it was played out in the cooldown room tells us everything we need to know on that one.

The pit stops that did – and didn’t – make the difference

Hamilton had a torrid weekend with an accident in practice, the five-second penalty with Russell, and nearly running one of his mechanics over in the pit stop through no fault of his own. That incident attracted a team fine rather than a race penalty and so Lewis was perhaps relieved to finish fourth, probably for the first time in his life.

Piastri drove a spirited race to fifth despite his car damage although he lacked the same pace, which threatened to make the podium early on, after he swapped onto the hard compound tyres on lap 20 of 44.

Lando Norris drove beautifully all weekend but had to start 13th due to needing power unit control electronics beyond the allowance in the regulations, which is designed to keep costs down so that wealthy teams can’t just throw new parts at the car every weekend.

Curiously McLaren chose not to use the virtual safety cars, or indeed a straightforward pit stop, until Lando eventually pitted on lap 30 to get rid of his starting hard-compound tyres. This left him with too much to do to catch Isack Hadjar who started his Red Bull from the back row of the grid, also due to numerous power unit penalties, to finish an impressive sixth.

Red Bull pitted Hadjar on lap one, and then again on lap two to cycle through the mandatory use of two different tyre compounds under cover of the Russell safety car, and then again under a virtual safety car on lap 20. Nicely done.

That same lap 20 VSC played out beautifully for Leclerc in his Ferrari as the time loss is only around 11 seconds when your rivals are lapping at reduced speed. Antonelli had pitted on lap 18 under full green conditions as Mercedes were covering off Red Bull’s pit stop for Verstappen on lap 17.

Through all this Leclerc leapfrogged the pair of them and was now effectively leading, albeit with the yet-to-stop Norris ahead of him. Antonelli would hunt him down but perhaps not as rapidly as expected, Leclerc was driving beautifully.

‘What a difference a year makes’

Eventually, and frankly inevitably given his speed throughout the event, the Italian teenager would take the lead, but Leclerc still wouldn’t give up, and he finished second just two seconds adrift.

Verstappen would finish a solid third, Leclerc’s safety car good fortune denied him a shot at second.

The final points went to Gabriel Bortoleto and Audi in eighth, Arvid Lindblad and Racing Bulls in ninth, and Franco Colapinto for Alpine in 10th. The safety cars played a role for and against throughout.

What a difference a year makes. Antonelli never ran higher than 14th on his F1 debut here last year, but he was in a class of one this season.

Mercedes are on fire too, with their eighth victory of the season, which is one more than they won over the last four ‘ground effect era’ seasons combined. That combination will take some stopping from winning both championships in fine style.

Formula 1 heads straight to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix with every session live on Sky Sports F1 from this Friday. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime