{"id":811086,"date":"2026-07-19T23:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T23:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/811086\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T23:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T23:21:12","slug":"f1-news-2026-belgian-grand-prix-oscar-piastri-and-charles-leclerc-incident-george-russell-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/811086\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news 2026 | Belgian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc incident; George Russell crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kimi Antonelli has extended his F1 title race lead after George Russell<\/a> ended his Belgian Grand Prix<\/a> in a frustrated mood, retiring on the first lap following a crash with Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n

It made for a controversial start from Ferrari with Hamilton\u2019s teammate Charles Leclerc almost crashing with Australian Oscar Piastri<\/a> on the eighth lap. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri make contact.\u00a0Sky Sports<\/p>\n

Piastri was fourth and putting pressure on Leclerc. Both racers came side-by-side before contact was made with the Aussie disadvantaged but staying in fourth. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe stewards will be looking at that, (Leclerc) not leaving a car\u2019s space in the braking zone,\u201d Brundle said. <\/p>\n

On the team radio Piastri then claimed \u201che didn\u2019t leave enough space. That could\u2019ve been a massive crash.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piastri had debris fly off his car during the crash and was overtaken by Ferrari rival Hamilton on the next lap. Leclerc was given a reprieve by the stewards for the contact, with no further action handed down. <\/p>\n

Brundle was quiet on the broadcast before saying, \u201cThat\u2019s why I never want to be a steward\u201d. <\/p>\n

Commentator David Croft added: \u201cI think your silence said it all there Martin to be honest\u201d.<\/p>\n

Post-race, Piastri questioned the decision to not investigate the contact further. <\/p>\n

\u201cI lost parts of my car and I don\u2019t know where I was supposed to go,\u201d Piastri told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I was equally surprised that nothing came.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut…it\u2019s small contact which had big consequences for me. Could have had very big consequences for both of us. But it is what it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re (McLaren) a bit inconsistent at the moment,\u201d Piastri admitted further. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

George Russell jumps out of his car.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just a lot of things that skew the picture a bit at the moment. I think hopefully we can get on top of those bits first.\u201d<\/p>\n

F1 title contender Russell was part of a dramatic opening minute to the race after Max Verstappen overtook Russell\u2019s teammate, Kimi Antonelli, early.<\/p>\n

Antonelli regained the lead seconds later as Russell pushed back to fourth with Hamilton close behind him. Russell went straight into the gravel and had to retire while Hamilton raced on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s bad news for George Russell and his F1 championship campaign,\u201d Martin Brundle said on Sky Sports. <\/p>\n

Hamilton was hit with a five-second penalty for his role in the crash and Antonelli saw off a challenge from Leclerc to get back to winning ways and stretch his driver championship lead over Russell.<\/p>\n

Leclerc was second and Max Verstappen rounded out the podium after briefly taking, then losing, the lead from Antonelli on the opening lap.<\/p>\n

During the race, Russell said he was \u201cvery disappointed\u201d with the situation and was lost for words when asked about the implications in the title race. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Race winner Kimi Antonelli of Italy and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team celebrates on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of Belgium.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Antonelli went into the race with a 25-point lead over Russell after recent reliability issues for the Italian cut his advantage. That has now nearly doubled. <\/p>\n

Antonelli will leave Belgium with a 45-point gap over Hamilton, who moved up to second, and is 50 points ahead of Russell.<\/p>\n

In a sign of tension at Mercedes after a heavy blow to his title chances, Russell seemed to blame his car, rather than Hamilton, for the incident. Russell said the incident wouldn\u2019t have happened if his car hadn\u2019t lost speed on the straight into the corner, dropping him behind Hamilton.<\/p>\n

Piastri finished in fifth for McLaren and Isack Hadjar was a strong sixth for Red Bull despite starting at the back of the field because of a penalty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli has extended his F1 title race lead after George Russell ended his Belgian Grand Prix in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-811086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}