Oscar Piastri criticized Formula 1 stewards after Charles Leclerc was cleared over their lap-eight collision at the Belgian Grand Prix, saying the Ferrari driver should at least have received a warning or a black-and-white flag after squeezing him wide at Les Combes. The FIA ruled there was no penalty, saying Leclerc had not deliberately crowded Piastri off the track and that Piastri did not have enough overlap, or any realistic chance of completing the pass, to claim the corner.

The clash came as Piastri tried to pass Leclerc for third place on the outside as they headed into Turn 5, with the cars making slight side-to-side contact. Piastri said he was forced onto the white line and onto the kerb, and he said the impact damaged his McLaren, caused floor damage and hurt his downforce, balance and tire wear for the rest of the race. McLaren fitted him with a new nose during his pit stop, and Piastri said the contact nearly triggered a bigger crash. He said the damage was the main reason his race unraveled.

Leclerc briefly inherited the lead later under a virtual safety car before finishing second behind Kimi Antonelli. Piastri faded to fifth, saying the car’s pace dropped off in the later stints and that McLaren was stronger at the start of runs than in clean air and traffic toward the end.

Lewis Hamilton kept fourth place at the Belgian Grand Prix after stewards ruled he was not at fault for Ferrari’s unsafe pit release, with the penalty handed only to the team. Hamilton made contact with a Ferrari mechanic as he was told to leave the pit box, but he stopped immediately, checked on the crew member over radio and later said he feared he may have seriously injured him. No injury was reported. Stewards said the incident stemmed from poor communication and a late instruction to adjust the front wing, and they said it created a sporting disadvantage rather than an advantage for Hamilton.

Ferrari was fined €30,000, about £25,500, with one-third suspended for 12 months if there is no repeat offense. The team was ordered to review its pit-stop procedures and submit a full report and remedial plan to the FIA within 14 days. Ferrari said the error came from a late wing-adjustment instruction and unclear communication, and said a mechanic failed to notice the green light before stepping into the car’s path.

The incident came during Hamilton’s lap 20 stop under the virtual safety car, after he had served a five-second penalty for first-lap contact with George Russell. Hamilton left before the front-wing adjustment was finished, which meant he ran with the wrong setup for part of the stint. He later passed Oscar Piastri for fourth and finished less than two seconds ahead of him. Hamilton said the moment briefly reminded him of Kimi Raikkonen’s 2018 Bahrain pit-lane crash.

Kimi Antonelli converted pole position into victory at Spa-Francorchamps, overcoming a virtual safety car setback and a brief loss of the lead to Charles Leclerc before passing him again to seal his sixth win of the 2026 season. The Mercedes driver stretched his championship lead to 45 points over Lewis Hamilton, who finished fourth and moved back into second in the standings. Leclerc finished second and Max Verstappen was third, while George Russell retired on the opening lap after a battery deployment problem left him vulnerable before contact with Hamilton ended his race.

The Belgian Grand Prix weekend was dominated by complaints about Formula 1’s 2026 power units and energy deployment. Russell said he was 30 to 40 percent down on battery out of Turn 1, Toto Wolff said Mercedes could not fully explain the fluctuations, and both Mercedes and McLaren drivers said the systems were leaving performance outside the driver’s control. Antonelli, Leclerc, Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris and Verstappen all criticized the unpredictability, with Piastri saying qualifying grids were being decided by computers behaving or misbehaving and Verstappen saying drivers were using Formula 3 levels of power through parts of Spa.

McLaren also left Spa frustrated after strategy and damage cost both cars stronger results. Norris started 13th because of a grid penalty, briefly led on an alternate strategy, then finished seventh after a poorly timed virtual safety car and a slow pit stop. Piastri finished fifth after floor damage from contact with Leclerc. Hamilton’s weekend was also complicated by a crash in final practice, a five-second penalty for his opening-lap clash with Russell, and a pit-lane unsafe release investigation, though he still recovered to fourth.

Kimi Antonelli won the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps from pole position, passing Charles Leclerc in the closing stages to claim his sixth Formula One victory of the season. The Mercedes driver finished 1.952 seconds ahead of Leclerc, with Max Verstappen third for Red Bull, and the result extended Antonelli’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship and strengthened Mercedes’ title position.

Antonelli had taken pole in a disrupted qualifying session with a final Q3 lap of 1:44.361, beating Verstappen by 0.317 seconds. Red Bull used teammate Isack Hadjar to give Verstappen a slipstream, and Verstappen said the tow was worth about three-tenths of a second. He also ran with an older rear wing after recent crashes with an upgraded part, and said the team had extracted the most from a car that lacked straight-line speed.

The race was shaped early by contact between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, which ended Russell’s run on lap one and brought out an early safety car. Hamilton was penalized but recovered to finish fourth, followed by Oscar Piastri in fifth, Hadjar in sixth after climbing from 21st on the grid, and Lando Norris seventh after a penalty and an alternative strategy. Verstappen briefly led but said a Virtual Safety Car came at the wrong time for Red Bull’s strategy, leaving him with what he called a very good podium result.