F1 Extended Highlights: Belgian Grand Prix

Four winners in four races but the man they all have to catch is the Italian wonder kid Kimi Antonelli. His sixth pole of the year, the largest pole margin of the year. He will start alongside Max Verstappen. We're looking forward to the race at one of the classic tracks of the year at Spa-Francorchamps. 2026 Belgian Grand Prix. It's lights out and away we go. Kimi Antonelli, good start. George Russell trying to get alongside Max Verstappen. Leclerc and Hamilton behind these two. Verstappen has it covered. Russell on the inside. Good line from him. Now might get the slipstream behind Verstappen running down towards Eau Rouge. Lewis Hamilton trying to get through there as well. Russell's under pressure. No straight line speed for him and there in front Max Verstappen has taken the lead of the Belgian Grand Prix from Kimi Antonelli who's now going to come back at him. Down the Kemmel straight. Look at the pace of the Mercedes. Look at the pace of the Ferrari. Max Verstappen swallowed up by the chicane. Antonelli leads. From Leclerc. Russell and Hamilton make contact. Russell in the gravel. Hamilton continues on. Limblad's lost out to Lawson in the Racing Bulls. What an action-packed first lap. Yeah, you can see Max Verstappen there in second place. He's obviously using a lot of battery deployment. Antonelli tries to cover him. Can't do that all the way through there. But that puts Verstappen into the lead. But pretty defenseless then. Heading such a long slog up the hill. George Russell is out of battery there as well. Look, they're just mugging him all the way down to Lecombe. Russell then late on the brakes. Now goes around the outside of Lewis. Gave Lewis, I have to say, racing room on the inside there. You always have to be wary of cold front tires and full fuel loads in a situation like that. But we're about to find out. I think George did give him enough space, but Lewis has obviously just had a little slide across the track. There goes Russell now. It's a little snap of oversteer, isn't it? Mid-corner from Lewis there. Sort of six of one, half a dozen of another, isn't it? That, for me, that'll be perceived as a racing incident. It has been noted three times in the past. Car crossed over in front of me. I was right behind another car, so I had no front end. Yeah, that's that little snap of oversteer. George is like, what has happened here? He carries on Esteban Ocon. Having quite a few adventures. Oh, and that's his teammate, Olly Behrmann, as they rub wheels through the Fanier chicane. The Mercedes has been recovered now. Oh, and he could have easily picked up that puncture heading off into the gravel as well. Yeah, I don't know which one of those contacts gave him the puncture. You can't overtake until you get to the line. So Hamilton was having a little look there on Oscar Piastri, but he's not allowed to go past him until they cross the line and start the next lap, which they have done now. Antonelli from Leclerc, then Verstappen. Piastri under pressure from Hamilton, who makes the dive down the inside into La Source. Very nice under braking from Hamilton. Did he have to use a bit of boost? Is he vulnerable now to a re-attack from Piastri? Looks like he is. Piastri's manager, Mark Webber, did this once to Fernando Alonso. Piastri's done it himself, overtaking through Eau Rouge. And Max Verstappen's been using his boost again. Gasly gets past Bortoletto. Verstappen is gaining here on Charles Leclerc. He's picking up the slipstream as well, and he's now alongside the Ferrari, braking into Les Combes. Max Verstappen takes second place from Charles Leclerc. That also means they can't follow the driver in front. That slipstream is very effective here. Active aero. Both cars have got opening in the rear wing and the front wing. Cutting down to dump the drag as well. He's halfway alongside Oscar Piastri. Who dares to brake? Ladies, they've touched! And there's a little bit of damage, I think, came off the Ferrari. Piastri has lost out. Hamilton's now all over his rear wing. I can't believe it. No space. There could have been a massive crash. Let's see if we can see it now. Well, this is Piastri. There's room at the moment to try and get past. Then it gets squeezed. That might have come, actually, off Piastri's front wing. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. As they rise over Radeon to the Les Combes chicane. Now onto the Camel Straight we go. And the speeds of about 200 miles an hour. Already that McLaren, the light flashing and charging up the battery. Hamilton will love to see that, because that gives him an opportunity to take fourth place, which he does. You'll not blow past those two cars. You'll not breeze past them easily. Five-second time penalty for Lewis Hamilton, as Fernando Alonso goes round the outside of Liam Lawson and picks up seventh place. Hamilton, for causing a collision with George Russell, that's left George Russell out of this Belgian Grand Prix, has a five-second time penalty. And now here comes Max Verstappen into the pits from second. Corinne Chan knocks down the pit lane. I am, and Crofty. Ferrari came running out as well to try, and maybe it's a bit of a dummy they were trying to play there. Ferrari came running out of the pit lane at the same time as Max Verstappen. Antonelli, nice swift stop of 2.6 seconds. Leclerc is the new leader of this race from Hamilton, Piastri and Norris. But it's Antonelli getting out ahead of Max Verstappen that Mercedes want to see here. Here comes the red bull, down towards the source now. Inside line for Antonelli, who used his tyres well in the last couple of laps to fend off the undercut from the red bull team. Virtual safety car. Bernie Collins, we didn't see people take advantage last time. Marshall's on the track once again. Will anyone take advantage this time? Yeah, I think if the safety car is still out, or the virtual safety car is still out by the time Ferrari get to the pit entry, then they should at least do it with Leclerc. This is their best chance. The other Ferrari's in as well, so they're going to double stack here. Hamilton is going to have to wait, they have to wait, don't touch. And it's a, I'll tell you what, it feels like an eternity, Crofty, for these mechanics. Let it go, you can hear the world go, Piastri has jumped out. And oh, there's a problem there on the front right, one of the mechanics nearly got run over. Wow, that was close for Lewis Hamilton, but the mechanic is standing up, so he's okay. Just a little touch, Karou mentioned this. Is he okay? He's okay, okay. Did you put front wing in or not? We did a manager. Yeah, I can't turn the car, so... Charles Leclerc is coming right at him on the Kemmel straight, and is about to take the lead of the race, and does so with ease. Lando knew there was no point fighting that one whatsoever. Last lap, he was eight tenths of a second quicker than Kimi Antonelli. Antonelli's losing that eight tenths of a second now, and look out for, while he's trying to get past the very wide McLaren of Lando Norris, and Max Verstappen's starting to cruise up behind him again, and Oscar Piastri still in the one minute 49s too. They're lapping very similar lap times. Antonelli needs this, needs an overtake, and McLaren's harvesting Norris' breezed past on that Kemmel straight. The gap, three seconds then, with lots of Max Verstappen fans on those banks alongside the Kemmel straight. They'll be cheering him on, they'll be wooing him on. He's trying to respond, gets into the chicane, has responded, goes a little bit deep, maybe goes too deep. Lando Norris can try and fight this back. Verstappen closes the door on him. It's time for a pit stop. They need a quick one from the crew, and they don't get a quick one from the crew. Left-hand rear that didn't want to come off, and it doesn't want to go back on too much either. Now, we said that he was going to come out behind Isaac Hajar, but is Lando Norris now going to come out behind Gabriel Bortoletto as well? Back marker was Fernando Alonso. That helped out, I think, Gabriel Bortoletto for that moment, but he's not going to be helped out for much longer, and Lando Norris has got this pass done by the time they get to, what, one seventh up the Kemmel straight. Now he's trying to break the toe. Don't want to weave too much, especially when you get into the braking zone. Antonelli's into the overtake mode now. He's one who's getting very close to it. Yes, he's now in that, so he will get extra battery charging and keeps his top speed for longer, now that he's within a second of his rival. Won this race here at Spa in 2019. Charles Leclerc went on to win in Monza. He wins in Spa, he wins in Monza just a couple of weeks later. The only previous time he has won consecutive races. His first two career wins. Piastri with a bit of damage to his car after contact with Charles Leclerc. No penalty for Leclerc. Hamilton with damage to his car after contact with George Russell earlier on in the race, for which he picked up a five-second penalty. The Ferrari's vulnerable along that Kemmel straight. Kimi Antonelli retakes the lead of the Belgian Grand Prix. He was warned that Leclerc will try and squeeze him, potentially, into the chicane. He managed to get the overtake done before the chicane was a factor. And Eau Rouge and then up towards Rallye-Arnhem with the car charging its battery. The speed decreases a little bit for both cars, but who's deploying more? Who's charging more on this straight? Charging towards Oscar Piastri is Lewis Hamilton. Charging up into fourth is Lewis Hamilton. He's got his man second time around. Hamilton is under investigation post-race for unsafe release. We need to stay within five seconds. Hamilton under investigation post-race. Kimi Antonelli, championship leader. Six poles in 2026. Make that sixth Grand Prix to go with it. Six of the best, as Antonelli wins the Belgian Grand Prix. Nice work, Kimi. Well done there, mate. Let's go. Good effort, mate. Let's go. Thank you so much, guys. Yeah, well done, mate. Thank you. Yeah, it was a busy race, that one, but well done. Kept a cool head. More podiums, more sparkles, more bubbles for Antonelli. What a season this is becoming for the young Italian.