Kimi Antonelli wins Belgian Grand Prix to extend lead in F1 championship – as Mercedes team-mate George Russell crashes out

Kimi Antonelli reasserted his dominance in the F1 championship race after winning the Belgian Grand Prix.

The 19-year-old won his sixth race from a possible 10 this season after catching and passing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli had earlier lost that position during a virtual safety car period.

Antonelli’s victory was even more pivotal as his Mercedes team-mate, and main challenger, George Russell crashed out at Spa-Francorchamps.

Russell’s race ended earlier after he collided with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton the opening lap. His DNF means he has now dropped to third place in the F1 standings, 50 points behind Antonelli.

Hamilton regrouped after the incident to finish fourth, meaning he has gone back to second in the championship race – five points better off than Russell.

Beating Hamilton into the final podium place was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

George Russell refusing to blame Lewis Hamilton for incident

Despite having race curtailed, Russell refused to blame his fellow British compatriot Hamilton.

An emotional Russell said: ‘I came out of Turn One, for whatever reason I was 30-40 per cent 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.’