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<\/p>\nItaly had to wait 73 years for its next Belgian Grand Prix winner.<\/p>\n
Alberto Ascari was the last to do it, winning the famous race in 1953. It was a key part of his title-winning season, the last time an Italian won the world championship.<\/p>\n
Andrea Kimi Antonelli\u2019s victory at Spa-Francorchamps at the weekend broke one of those droughts, and by extending his championship lead to 45 points over Lewis Hamilton and 50 points over hapless teammate George Russell, he\u2019s on the way to breaking the other too.<\/p>\n
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Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n But the fact victory for the teenager felt inevitable for practically the entire weekend was perhaps the more important part of this result.<\/p>\n Antonelli had been shipping points to Hamilton and Russell for three grands prix, his lead slashed from a season-high 66 points down to just 25 points ahead of Belgium.<\/p>\n Circumstances had played a dominant role in that fallow spell, with unreliability twice rendering him scoreless.<\/p>\n Still, with teammate Russell winning one of those races and with the surging Ferrari claiming the balance, there was a risk that momentum was swinging against the young gun.<\/p>\n He shut down that theory with the sort of ruthlessness becoming of a title-winner.<\/p>\n \u201cThe momentum has always been there despite what happened in the previous races,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI just need to maximise the performance every time and try to do my best whenever I get in the car, then you see what the balance is at the end of the year.<\/p>\n Instead, the preceding run of low-scoring races had put his campaign into a new perspective.<\/p>\n \u201cI just need to take it one weekend at a time, because you never know what can happen.<\/p>\n \u201cWith these new cars and new regulations, there\u2019s so much going on and so many unpredictable things that can happen.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why I just need to focus race by race, and then you\u2019ll see at the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n But then it\u2019s easy to take things week by week when the pace comes easily.<\/p>\n For Russell, who finds himself third in the standings for the third time in five rounds, every new week brings a new level of pain and disappointment.<\/p>\n \u2018UNACCEPTABLE. UN-F**KING ACCEPTABLE.\u2019<\/p>\n Russell thought he could fight for the lead as he exited La Source with a bit of overlap on second-placed Verstappen.<\/p>\n That brief moment of positivity was as good as things got.<\/p>\n It was when he put his foot down to power down to Eau Rouge that he knew he had problems.<\/p>\n \u201cFor whatever reason, the battery decided not to recharge at turn 1, so \u2026 I exited the first corner 35 per cent down [on battery charge],\u201d he said, per ESPN.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause it didn\u2019t charge and I also had a boost problem, the turbo didn\u2019t sort itself out, so I had no power. I got to the top of Eau Rouge with 0 per cent on the battery.<\/p>\n \u201cQuite frankly it was dangerous, and I got swamped by three cars.\u201d<\/p>\n One of those cars was Hamilton, who cruised down his inside into Les Combes only to find himself stuck behind Verstappen at the apex.<\/p>\n Russell spied his chance to begin his recovery immediately and swooped around Hamilton\u2019s outside.<\/p>\n Hamilton, though, began to understeer, his car lacking downforce in Verstappen\u2019s wake. They collided in the middle of the road.<\/p>\n Russell\u2019s Mercedes was bounced into the gravel, where it became beached.<\/p>\n Russell was out of the race, and he was furious.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the f**k happened with the [state of charge] down the straight?\u201d he shouted into his radio. \u201cI had no f**king battery down the straight.<\/p>\n \u201cGuys, unacceptable. Un-f**king acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n He made clear afterwards \u2014 if there was any doubt \u2014 that his rage was all about his engine problem, not the crash.<\/p>\n \u201cI shouldn\u2019t have been in that position in the first place, that\u2019s why I\u2019m most angry,\u201d he said. \u201cWith Lewis, honestly, I think was a racing incident.\u201d<\/p>\n Russell has been complaining about what he\u2019s believed has been an engine problem for the last two weekends, though his complaints had been focused largely on top speed \u2014 more on that below.<\/p>\n His issue on the first lap, though, appeared to be different, with an inexplicable and significant lack of battery charge at the start of the race.<\/p>\n He wasn\u2019t alone. Mercedes revealed later that every driver with one of its engines suffered an unexpected lack of power out of the first corner.<\/p>\n Antonelli, for example, lost the lead to Verstappen almost immediately out of the first corner.<\/p>\n \u201cI was so confused about what was happening, because Max came flying past me before Eau Rouge,\u201d Antonelli said.<\/p>\n \u201cI passed him back, but then I saw Charles [Leclerc] almost come alongside me, and I was like, \u2018What the heck is happening?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI had no clue. I was just trying to hold the position on track, and I was looking in my mirror the whole time because I just saw so many cars coming.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a crazy start. Luckily we got away cleanly.\u201d<\/p>\n For Russell, though, it\u2019s more personal, and not just because it cost him big points.<\/p>\n Though it mightn\u2019t have been the same problem he\u2019s been arguing over for the last few weeks, another clear Mercedes engine issue appears to have opened the door to the team finally accepting that his car is carrying a problem that\u2019s hurting his championship hopes.<\/p>\n RUSSELL\u2019S FRUSTRATION IS BUILDING<\/p>\n The context of Russell\u2019s incident is bigger than the points swing against him.<\/p>\n For the last two weekends the Briton has felt he hasn\u2019t had access to the same engine power as Antonelli.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not an accusation of bias but effectively of substandard workmanship that he says is tainting his title campaign.<\/p>\n