George Russell rues more misfortune after crash as Kimi Antonelli stretches lead

George Russell said he has grown “numb to disappointment” after he crashed out of the Belgian Grand Prix following a first-lap collision with Lewis Hamilton.

Kimi Antonelli cleared Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc with 10 laps remaining at Spa-Francorchamps to take his sixth win of the season, and double his title advantage over Russell from 25 points to 50 after 10 of the 22 scheduled rounds.

Leclerc crossed the line 1.9 seconds back from Antonelli with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen third.

Hamilton finished fourth after an eventful afternoon, first colliding with Russell – for which he was sanctioned with a five-second penalty – before he ran over his own mechanic in the pit lane when he was erroneously given the green light to rejoin the track. The mechanic escaped without significant injury and Ferrari were hit with a £25,500 fine.

Hamilton was able to take advantage of Russell’s demise to move back up to second in the standings, albeit now 45 points behind the impressive Antonelli.

Antonelli, not 20 until next month, might have started from pole, but he had to work for his win after Leclerc benefitted from a Virtual Safety Car and was able to assume the lead.

Leclerc’s advantage stood at three seconds, but Antonelli reeled the Monegasque in before blasting past the Ferrari on the Kemmel Straight on the 34th lap.

Antonelli’s fine victory compounded a disastrous afternoon for Mercedes team-mate Russell, who has now failed to score three times in a campaign beset by reliability problems.

Russell qualified fourth – half-a-second behind Antonelli – following a deployment riddle within his Mercedes power unit which has left his engineers scratching their heads.

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