Russell clipped by Hamilton on lap one after power loss British driver 50 points behind Antonelli in standingsToto Wolff, the Mercedes principal, has admitted the team let George Russell down at the Belgian Grand Prix. The British driver failed to score a point after a clash with Lewis Hamilton that Russell attributed to his car’s performance not being up to scratch.The race was won by Kimi Antonelli, who now leads his teammate Russell by 50 points in the world championship, a serious blow to the latter’s title hopes. Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli re-establishes a comfortable championship lead with victory in the Belgian Grand Prix while team-mate George Russell crashes out.
Mercedes driver won his sixth GP of 2026 as championship rival and teammate George Russell crashes out on first lap. Russell out on opening lap after clash with HamiltonAntonelli has 50-point lead on Mercedes teammateVictory in the Belgian Grand Prix could not have been sweeter for Kimi Antonelli, but it has cruelly exposed something of an inexplicable faultline within his Mercedes team. The Italian teenager’s joy stood in stark contrast to his teammate George Russell, who was knocked out on lap one after a clash with Lewis Hamilton, for which Russell squarely blamed his team and what he sees as a weakness with his car they seem unable to rectify.Hamilton had clipped Russell at Les Combes, which the Mercedes driver considered a racing incident.
Russell, however, was vehement in his belief that he should not have been competing for a corner with the Ferrari and that he had been forced to do so because he was once more enduring a lack of straightline speed. It is a deficit that notably is not affecting Antonelli, giving the conspiracy theorists a field day but more importantly posing a conundrum for Mercedes that they apparently cannot quite fathom. Kimi Antonelli overcame the misfortune of losing the lead through a Virtual Safety Car to overtake Charles Leclerc and win the Belgian Grand Prix on a day team-mate George Russell's title hopes suffered a major fresh blow.
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