George Russell edged out defending champion Lando Norris to take sprint pole at Zandvoort. This was the Mercedes driver’s third sprint P1 this season.
The Silver Arrows driver beat the Papaya by a tiny margin of only 0.041 seconds and it came particularly out of the blue after topping neither SQ1 or SQ2 – respectively done by Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri – but recorded a lap time of one minute, 11.567 seconds in the final segment of sprint qualifying.
It was a very tight SQ3 too, as third-placed Leclerc was just 0.055 seconds off the pace for Ferrari with Oscar Piastri in fourth and 0.099 seconds behind Russell.
A slightly bigger gap then emerged to Russell’s teammate Kimi Antonelli though, who was 0.227 seconds behind, with another three tenths precisely to Max Verstappen in sixth for Red Bull.
Lewis Hamilton struggled in the other Ferrari as the seven-time world champion was 0.624 seconds behind Russell in seventh, but five tenths above Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in eighth.
Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Racing Bulls Arvid Lindblad respectively rounded out the top ten at Zandvoort, both setting a lap that was 1.016 seconds and 1.170 seconds behind Russell ahead of the sprint race.
It was a respectable Red Bull return for Liam Lawson, who has replaced the injured Isack Hadjar, as he qualified P11 after being eliminated by his usual teammate Lindblad.
“I have no idea what happened,” reported Lawson, who was four tenths off SQ3, and will share the sixth row with his Racing Bulls stand-in and Formula 1 returnee Yuki Tsunoda.
Franco Colapinto will be on the seventh row in P13, shared with Nico Hulkenberg, while Esteban Ocon and Alex Albon respectively rounded out the SQ2 drop zone.
In SQ1 a late improvement from Oliver Bearman put him P17 and one position above Williams driver Carlos Sainz, who was pushed into the elimination zone by Bearman’s Haas teammate Ocon.
The last four positions were occupied by the usual suspects: Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in P19, the Cadillac duo of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez P20 and P21 with Fernando Alonso in P22.
Alonso particularly struggled as he locked up at Turn 1 and finished last despite a slipstream from a Cadillac and it was later confirmed that the straight line mode on his rear wing did not work.
Dutch Grand Prix, sprint qualifying results: 1 George Russell Mercedes 1:11.567 2 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:11.608 3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:11.622 4 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1:11.666 5 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:11.794 6 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford 1:12.094 7 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:12.191 8 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes 1:12.578 9 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:12.583 10 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford 1:12.737 11 Liam Lawson Red Bull-Ford 1:13.136 12 Yuki Tsunoda Racing Bulls-Ford 1:13.145 13 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes 1:13.439 14 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:13.616 15 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari 1:13.893 16 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes 1:14.294 17 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari 1:14.728 18 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes 1:14.738 19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda 1:15.391 20 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari 1:15.472 21 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari 1:15.545 22 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda 1:16.014
Lando Norris achieved his first victory as the defending Formula 1 world champion with a solid drive at the Hungarian Grand Prix beating his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri – who suffered a retirement – and finishing ahead of Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli.
Piastri passed polesitter Norris at the start with a cutback at Turn 2 and controlled the first half of the Hungarian Grand Prix, with Norris appearing quicker but unable to find a way past on the twisty Hungaroring track.
Verstappen moved to third position ahead of Ferrari duo Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, as the latter was sandwiched by his two rivals. Meanwhile, George Russell suffered an awful start as anti-stall kicked in on his Mercedes, dropping him as low as P19.
Both Ferraris started on softs, as opposed to mediums for the other frontrunners, but as they were stuck behind Verstappen, Hamilton and Leclerc were unable to put their faster tyres to good use.
On lap 14, Hamilton came in with an early stop for hards. Verstappen responded on the following lap, but while he was unable to avoid the undercut from Hamilton, Verstappen did a dive bomb down the inside of Turn 1 to regain his position.
The end result of the first pit sequence was that the top five held station, with the exception of Antonelli going long to try and pull off a one-stop strategy. However, the Mercedes driver was losing too much lap time to pull it off, having to come in on lap 23 for hards. Which was too early to make it to the end of the 70-lap race. Russell had meanwhile recovered back to seventh.
After the first round of pitstops, Norris was right on Piastri, though the world champion did lose grip through Turn 4 on lap 29, running off which handed Oscar a temporary break.
Lando’s off-track moment prompted a cautionary message from his race engineer to settle down as the team suspected the defending champion was trying to show off how much quicker he was than his leading teammate. But with little pressure from Verstappen behind and Piastri having taken the lead fair and square at the start, McLaren did not seem particularly motivated to issue any kind of team orders like the Papaya Rules.
An impatient Norris asked his team to pit him first and gain an undercut, which the team refused, but it did bring in Piastri for a second stop on lap 34. That put Piastri into lapped traffic as he was caught up in a battle between Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso in the first sector, with Sainz staying on the racing line and making contact into Piastri.
“Get out of the f***ing way, you idiot, oh my god”, a furious Piastri raged as he escaped damage, but lost enough time to be overcut once Lando came in for his own pitstop. Seeing Norris emerge from the pitlane ahead, Piastri also redirected his frustration at his own team, sarcastically thanking them for putting him in that position in the first place. Sainz received a five-second time penalty for ignoring the blue flags.
Norris then passed championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who was trying to nurse an ambitious one-stop strategy. Piastri was unable to follow Norris for a 1-2, though, as he dramatically retired from the race with a gearbox failure on lap 56.
The virtual safety car delivered an exciting end to the race with the battle for the remaining podium places behind Norris.
With Antonelli having already on his one-stopper, Hamilton had moved to second but also came in for fresh tyres, while Verstappen stayed out to gain track position. Hamilton also lost third to Antonelli on pit exit, with Leclerc fifth after his own third pitstop.
At the front, Norris comfortably controlled his lead to take both his and McLaren’s first Grand Prix win of the 2026 season, though one that will prompt a lengthy debrief at the outfit.
Verstappen was able to take an unexpected second position after struggling all weekend with the behaviour of his RB22. The entertaining duel for third between Antonelli and a chasing Hamilton was halted by a five-second penalty for Lewis for speeding in the pitlane, which dropped him to fifth behind Leclerc in the final result.
Isack Hadjar was sixth for Red Bull, with Russell able to take seventh from his poor start, despite unable to avoid losing further points in the championship.
Liam Lawson and Racing Bulls won the midfield battle in eighth, followed by Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg and Arvid Lindblad, the end result of a four-car battle between the two teams.
Lance Stroll took an encouraging P12 for Aston Martin in its upgraded car, behind Gabriel Bortoleto’s Audi, while both Cadillacs of Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas joined Piastri in retirement as their brakes caught fire.
Formula 1 now heads into its summer break, with Antonelli heading with an 50-point lead on Hamilton and a 59-point advantage over Russell. The racing action will resumes on August 23rd with the final edition of the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.
So congratulations to Lando Norris. A strong weekend as the defending champion with pole position and race victory. The upgraded McLaren has definitely improved the performance.
Hungarian Grand Prix, race results: 1 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:39:56.180 2 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford +15.080s 3 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +18.728s 4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +23.840s 5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +24.540s 6 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford +55.488s 7 George Russell Mercedes +57.503s 8 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford +1 lap 9 Nico Hulkenberg Audi +1 lap 10 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford +1 lap 11 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +1 lap 12 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes +1 lap 13 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda +1 lap 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda +1 lap 15 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes +2 laps 16 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari +2 laps 17 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes +2 laps 18 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes +2 laps 19 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari +2 laps Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes DNF Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari DNF Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari DNF
Lando Norris snatched pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix from the Ferraris with an impressive final Q3 run in an upgraded McLaren.
In the final moments of qualifying, Norris crossed the line with a lap time of one minute, 17.207 seconds, perfectly timing his effort to avoid two late yellow flags brought out by a spinning Max Verstappen and a stranded George Russell.
Lewis Hamilton was unable to improve on his final Q3 run and had to settle for P2 ahead of Charles Leclerc. While championship leader Kimi Antonelli was only in P4 after a frustrating session for Mercedes.
However, post-qualifying the stewards have penalised Lewis Hamilton for impeding Oscar Piastri during his Q3 run. Meaning the Ferrari will lose his front row grid slot and drops down three positions. In addition, championship leader Kimi Antonelli also received a grid penalty for not slowing down significantly under yellow following Max Verstappen’s spin. The Mercedes driver will drop down three places on the grid.
Asked to park up by his team, Russell qualified P7 behind Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen as both Red Bull drivers suffered spins during the final segment.
Isack Hadjar claimed P8, with Arvid Lindblad and Nico Hulkenberg rounding out the top ten qualifiers at the Hungaroring.
Heading into the decisive Q3 shootout, all the frontrunners had kept at least two fresh sets of Pirelli’s softest C5 tyres, with Hamilton leading Norris and Charles Leclerc after the first of two runs. Hamilton set a time of one minute, 17.219 seconds to be a tenth below Lando’s time, the McLaren driver losing time with a huge slide out of the final corner, with Charles another tenth behind.
The performance of Mercedes was a mystery as the dominant team appeared to struggle for balance across both cars on the bumpy and windy Hungaroring. Kimi Antonelli was fourth after the first set of runs ahead of Oscar Piastri, with George Russell split by the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar. But neither team appeared to be a threat to either Ferrari or McLaren.
The decisive Q3 run confirmed as much, and the tricky conditions made it difficult to find additional lap time gain. Neither Hamilton or Leclerc did, but Norris went purple in sector two and then executed a much cleaner final sector to edge ahead of Hamilton by 0.012 seconds. It was enough for a first Grand Prix pole as the reigning world champion, with the McLaren driver having also taken a sprint pole in Miami.
Hamilton and Leclerc settled for second and third respectively, while championship leader Antonelli did improve on his final flying lap but had to settle for fourth, catching yellows in the final corner for a spin by Verstappen.
Piastri had been on the back foot all weekend compared to Norris and was fifth, while Verstappen could only manage sixth as a result of his spin on his second run.
Russell also caught yellows as Verstappen returned to the circuit, but had not been on a better second lap anyway. Hadjar was eighth, with midfielders Arvid Lindblad and Nico Hulkenberg impressing to take ninth and tenth respectively.
In Q2, Hadjar spun his Red Bull in Turn 12 on his first lap as Hamilton initially claimed the top of the timesheets with one minute, 17.931 seconds. The Ferrari driver enjoyed a 0.247 seconds gap to Antonelli, who complained of a complete lack of grip, suggesting Mercedes was “doing something wrong with tyres”.
Norris ended up quickest with one minute, 17.456 seconds from Leclerc and Hamilton, while Hadjar recovered from his spin to go fourth quickest as all the other frontrunners also comfortably advanced to Q3.
Fernando Alonso was the surprise package of Q2 as he and Aston Martin finally made it through into the second qualifying segment thanks to the all-new AMR26 for Hungary with significant car upgrades.
Alonso set his Q2 laps earlier than the rest of the pack to avoid the traffic, but P16 was the best the two-time world champion could only achieve.
Of the midfield runners, Lindblad impressed in seventh and Hulkenberg snagged the final Q3 spot in P10. That dropped out Liam Lawson, who complained of an undriveable car.
Alpine duo Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto was also eliminated, as was Gabriel Bortoleto and Haas driver Esteban Ocon, although the latter did snap a streak of defeats against his teammate Oliver Bearman.
Norris took the early lead in Q1 with a time of one minute, 18.277 seconds on softs ahead of Verstappen and Antonelli. Ferrari had enough confidence to try and advance on mediums, with Hamilton’s one minute, 18.730 seconds lap good for fourth.
At the rear of the field all eyes were on Aston Martin with the B-spec, and whether or not the Silverstone outfit’s mid-season changes would be enough to escape the rear of the grid. Following encouraging signs in free practice, Alonso confirmed Aston Martin has worked itself into Formula 1’s midfield, squeezing through at the expense of Bearman, who complained of a “horrible” car balance.
Aston Martin’s big performance upgrade also lifted it over Williams, aided by the Hungaroring not being a power sensitive circuit where Honda’s deficit compared to the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari. But Williams was also particularly poor in its own right, with Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon P18 and P19 as the latter was confused by the constantly changing balance on the FW48.
Behind Lance Stroll in P20, Cadillac was the slowest team on the grid with Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez departing from the back row.
So great news to see the defending champion back on top with pole position. It will be fascinating if McLaren has got good race pace to stay ahead of the Ferraris.
Hungarian Grand Prix, qualifying results: 1 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:17.207 2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:17.445 3 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1:17.684 4 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford 1:17.725 5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:17.219* 6 George Russell Mercedes 1:17.760 7 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:17.479** 8 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford 1:17.856 9 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford 1:18.281 10 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:18.686 11 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford 1:18.765 12 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes 1:18.844 13 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes 1:19.027 14 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:19.105 15 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari 1:19.734 16 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda 1:19.808 17 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari 1:20.233 18 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes 1:20.621 19 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes 1:20.658 20 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda 1:20.659 21 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari 1:20.886 22 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari 1:21.322 *Three-place grid drop for impeding Oscar Piastri during Q3 **Three-place grid drop for not slowing down under yellow flags
Kimi Antonelli achieves his sixth victory of the season with a great drive at Spa-Francorchamps. The Mercedes driver beat Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen to score 50 points over his teammate and rival George Russell at the Belgian Grand Prix.
As the five red lights went out, it was actually Verstappen who made a solid getaway on the grid and he took the lead on Antonelli on the opening lap at Eau Rouge, but he was unable to stay ahead of the Mercedes driver and quickly gave up the lead on the Kemmel straight.
While Antonelli went to the front, there was heartbreak for his teammate who fell behind both Ferraris and made contact with Lewis Hamilton, spinning George Russell into the gravel and bringing his race to an end. This non-finish will be an important factor in terms of the championship.
Kimi resisted the pressure of a safety car restart as well as a late challenge from Charles after retaking the lead to take the chequered flag by 1.9 seconds, securing his sixth race win of the 2026 season and first since the Monaco Grand Prix.
Leclerc missed out on claiming consecutive victories following his Silverstone success but confidently held onto second position ahead of Verstappen, who crossed the finishing line ahead of Hamilton – who had to serve a five-second time penalty for the collision with Russell and will also be investigated after the race for an unsafe pitstop release – and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
The top five were followed by Isack Hadjar, the Red Bull driver charging from the back of the grid to P6, with Lando Norris similarly improving from P13 to P7. Gabriel Bortoleto scored for Audi in eighth, while Arvid Lindblad and Franco Colapinto rounded out the top ten.
Just two laps after Antonelli had made his switch to the hard tyre, a virtual safety car was called on lap 20 to clear debris at Blanchimont, which offered a wide enough window for Ferrari to pit both cars. Leclerc, who had been behind both Antonelli and Verstappen, used this opportunity to switch to the hard tyre and moved out ahead for the lead.
The Ferrari driver was able to build a lead gap once he had cleared the off-strategy Lando Norris, who was yet to pit after starting on the hard tyre, as Antonelli also needed a few laps to clear the McLaren.
There was about three seconds between them once Norris was cleared, but Antonelli demonstrated the strong pace and closed in on the Ferrari, helped when Leclerc stuck by Valtteri Bottas through Turn 15. Antonelli broke past at Turn 5 on the following lap after chasing the Ferrari up the hill.
Leclerc stayed with Antonelli for a few laps of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, just about holding on in overtake range, but had been unable to seek an opportunity to return to the lead. Instead, Antonelli maintained enough speed in hand to open the gap beyond the one-second bap needed to avoid a potential Leclerc fightback.
Antonelli continued to manage his lead, ultimately finishing 1.9 seconds ahead of Leclerc to extend his championship lead as Russell unable to score following his first-lap contact with Hamilton’s Ferrari.
Russell had been battling Leclerc through the first couple of corners. Misfortune struck when he ran out of battery deployment half-way along the Kemmel Straight on the opening lap, which led to the Mercedes driver being swamped by the cars around him on the entry to Les Combes. He was side-by-side with Hamilton – the Ferrari driver’s snap of oversteer led to contact between the two, pitching Russell into the gravel.
Verstappen finished third, despite a somewhat distant to the leading pair after being passed by Leclerc during the VSC pitstops. The four-time champion had put pressure on Antonelli in the opening laps, but fell back as Leclerc began to find pace ahead of the pit phase.
Hamilton took fourth, despite serving a five-second penalty for the contact with Russell. Another potential penalty could be a threat following an unsafe release. The seven-time champion had the green signal from his pit gantry post-stop, and had not seen a mechanic attempting to make a last-minute front wing adjustment.
Lewis passed Oscar to reach fourth, but the McLaren had been able to hang onto the Ferrari’s tail in the event of a penalty. Piastri had suffered contact earlier in the race with Leclerc, causing minor damage to his car which hurt his race pace.
Isack Hadjar worked his way up to sixth after using the early safety car to conduct his mandatory tyre change, later using the VSC to pick up a lightly used set of hard tyres in the middle of the race. This helped the Red Bull driver avoid a late fightback from Norris, whose alternate strategy was undone by a very slow pit stop. A slow left-rear wheel change put the defending champion behind Gabriel Bortoleto on-track, but he soon passed the Audi for seventh.
Bortoleto finished eighth ahead of Arvid Lindblad, who at one point was investigated for potential contact with teammate Liam Lawson, while Franco Colapinto pulled off a two-for-one move on Pierre Gasly and Lawson along the Kemmel Straight to take the final championship point.
So congratulations to Kimi Antonelli with victory number six in this season. With a non-finish for George Russell, there is now a fifty points gap between the Silver Arrows drivers. The Hungarian Grand Prix is next before the summer break.
Belgian Grand Prix, race results: 1 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:24:42.479 2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +1.952s 3 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford +11.586s 4 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +17.245s 5 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes +18.988s 6 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls-Ford +23.307s 7 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes +24.014s 8 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +49.140s 9 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford +50.406s 10 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes +76.037s 11 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes +76.991s 12 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford +77.523s 13 Nico Hulkenberg Audi +78.348s 14 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari +94.465s 15 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes +104.684s 16 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes +105.856s 17 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari +110.925s 18 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari +1 lap 19 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda +2 laps Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda DNF Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari DNF George Russell Mercedes DNF
Kimi Antonelli achieved his sixth Formula 1 pole position of the season with the quickest lap at Spa-Francorchamps, edging out Max Verstappen by 0.317 seconds.
The Mercedes driver continued the Silver Arrows’ lock-out of pole positions despite having to chase Verstappen’s second lap, as the four time champion made use of a “tow and a half” from Isack Hadjar – following a series of grid penalties for power unit changes – to briefly move to the top.
Antonelli then pushed to gain three tenths over Verstappen’s lap to set a time of one minute, 44.361 seconds, which none of the remaining drivers were able to get close to across their final laps. Thus, the championship leader booked his top spot alongside Verstappen on the front row, who praised the efforts of Red Bull to use Hadjar for slipstreaming purposes.
Largely against the run of play, Lando Norris had set the quickest time of the first runs after finding 0.039 seconds on Antonelli’s opening effort, while Charles Leclerc also put himself into the contention with a lap within the same hundredth of the cars ahead.
A red flag emerged between runs to clear gravel which emerged on-track at Stavelot, producing a slightly extended gap between the first and second runs of Q3.
Both Antonelli and Verstappen moved ahead of Norris on their final laps, but the McLaren driver’s opening Q3 effort remained good enough for third. The McLaren driver later aborting his second lap after running across the gravel at Turn 13. To his relief, he managed to avoid the wall-clipping fate of Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton in similar incidents at that corner in practice.
Norris, however, takes a 10-place grid penalty for the Belgian Grand Prix and will start P13 on the grid when accounting for other penalties. George Russell thus moves up to third after finishing fourth in the session, alongside Leclerc on the second row.
Hamilton qualified sixth and will move up to fifth alongside Oscar Piastri, who improved late to move ahead of an impressive Arvid Lindblad. The Racing Bulls driver will start seventh, alongside Gabriel Bortoleto. Hadjar did not get a qualifying time in, knowing that he will start the race from the last row of the grid.
Liam Lawson improved on his second run of Q2, but just fell four-hundredths short of overturning Bortoleto and could not join his teammate Lindblad in the top ten. Lawson, not running the team’s updated car this weekend as only one set of parts was available, ended up half a second off.
Both Alpines qualified P12 and P13, Gasly from Franco Colapinto, as the latter found time on his last lap to move ahead of Nico Hulkenberg – whose car stopped on track during his in-lap with a hydraulic leak to produce a delay to Q3. Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman had just 0.002 seconds between them as they completed the Q2 drop zone.
Alex Albon was knocked out at the climax of Q1, as both Alpine drivers improved on their final laps. Colapinto had been in the drop zone after the opening runs, but he pulled himself out over Albon’s expense.
The Williams driver was just 0.007 seconds off Bearman at the end of the first stage, while the other Haas driver – Esteban Ocon – struggled to make use of a slipstream from the cars ahead and fell out in P18.
Valtteri Bottas was just 0.022 seconds behind Ocon and led the finishing line for Cadillac, moving Sergio Perez in their second runs. Perez had been a full two seconds clear of Fernando Alonso, the fastest of the Aston Martins, while Lance Stroll propped up the qualifying order.
Alonso will start at the back regardless, after taking a series of power unit changes for this weekend.
The run up to the Les Combes corner on the opening lap of the Belgian Grand Prix is going to be fascinating thanks to the slipstream effect. So expect Kimi Antonelli versus Max Verstappen to lead. Bring on the race!
Belgian Grand Prix, qualifying results: 1 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:44.361 2 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford 1:44.678 3 George Russell Mercedes 1:44.869 4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:44.893 5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:44.895 6 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1:45.016 7 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford 1:45.143 8 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:45.628 9 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford 1:46.120 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:46.331 11 Franco Colapinto Alpine 1:46.392 12 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:46.671 13 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:44.801* 14 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes 1:46.777 15 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari 1:46.779 16 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes 1:47.120 17 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari 1:47.801 18 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari 1:47.823 19 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari 1:47.971 20 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda 1:50.177 21 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford 2:03.555* 22 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda 1:50.002* *Ten-place grid penalty for power unit change
Charles Leclerc drove a fantastic race for Ferrari to win the British Grand Prix despite the Silverstone race ending behind the safety car.
The Ferrari driver headed George Russell and Lewis Hamilton to take P1 while championship leader Kimi Antonelli lost second position with late reliability troubles.
Leclerc had snatched the lead away from polesitter Kimi Antonelli at the start, with third-placed starter Hamilton also following his Ferrari teammate through.
While Charles made his only pitstop, Kimi stayed out with a ten-lap tyre-life advantage offset on the Ferrari driver, only pitting on lap 35 of 52. But on lap 41 Antonelli reported “something is broken” on his Mercedes. It emerged Antonelli’s left wheel shield failed, causing handling issues that made him pit twice to fix the issue but saw Kimi drop outside the top ten, losing 18 crucial points in the drivers’ standings.
Antonelli’s misfortunate sealed the first win of the 2026 season for Leclerc, with a comfortable 20-second lead on teammate Lewis Hamilton.
From third on the grid, Hamilton took a five-second time penalty for a false start, but after sitting out his punishment during his pitstop the seven-time world champion easily came out on top of a three-way fight with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and the Mercedes of George Russell.
Verstappen looked set to claim an unlikely podium despite struggling with his Red Bull’s handling, gearbox and power unit deployment, but the four-time champion dramatically spun off the road at Stowe with six laps to go, beaching himself in the gravel.
Verstappen’s off brought out the safety car, which looked like it was going to set up a manic one-lap shoot-out as the majority of the field pitted for soft tyres. It was like a repeat of the Abu Dhabi 2021 with a final lap shootout.
Russell stayed out on mediums, however, giving his track position on old mediums in second, ahead of Hamilton and McLaren’s Lando Norris.
But while race control reported the safety car would come in at the end of the penultimate lap, the Mercedes safety car continued on, with Leclerc heading Russell and Hamilton locked into the podium positions.
Hamilton is still to face the FIA race stewards for a yellow-flag infringement. After a post-race investigation, the stewards decided there was no issue and Lewis keeps his podium finish.
Norris ended up in fourth, benefitting from Verstappen’s and Antonelli’s misfortune after the reigning world champion was struggling with his McLaren, in which he was unable to keep up with the competition on Silverstone’s demanding layout.
Isack Hadjar was fifth for Red Bull, ahead of midfield leaders Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad for the impressive Racing Bulls outfit.
Gabriel Bortoleto finally scored hard-earned points for Audi with eighth, with Alpine duo Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly rounding out the top ten for Alpine.
Antonelli crossed the finish line in P16, seeing his championship lead on teammate Russell reduced to 25 points.
So congratulations to Charles Leclerc in winning at Silverstone. It was anticlimactic end to the British Grand Prix with the leading Ferrari finishing behind the safety car. There was no Abu Dhabi 2021 final lap shootout. Race control denied the opportunity for a thrilling conclusion.
British Grand Prix, race results: 1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:27:11.335 2 George Russell Mercedes +0.427s 3 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.772s 4 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes +1.149s 5 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford +1.598s 6 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford +2.023s 7 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford +2.214s 8 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +2.413s 9 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes +3.229s 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes +3.445s 11 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes +4.014s 12 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes +4.391s 13 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari +5.245s 14 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari +5.512s 15 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari +7.403s 16 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +8.005s 17 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari +8.162s 18 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda +1 lap 19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda +1 lap Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford DNF Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes DNF Nico Hulkenberg Audi DNF
After winning the sprint race earlier, championship leader Kimi Antonelli signed off a perfect Saturday at Silverstone with pole position for the British Grand Prix.
The Ferraris could only settle with P2 and P3 with Charles Leclerc taking a front row slot, ahead of his teammate and home favourite Lewis Hamilton.
Antonelli improved on his first Q3 run to secure his fifth pole of the season, while a much-needed improvement for Leclerc to grab P2 and qualify ahead of teammate Hamilton and Russell.
The Silver Arrows had yet to be defeated in Grand Prix qualifying this year, and a surprisingly strong pole lap from Hamilton in sprint qualifying suggested the Mercedes streak could be broken in Silverstone. But after Antonelli passed Hamilton to win the sprint, the points leader further backed with pole.
Russell was second after the first of two Q3 runs but was unable to improve on his second lap, which was over half a second slower than Antonelli. That dropped him to fourth position behind Leclerc and Hamilton, who did improve but only found one tenth compared to his first effort.
Isack Hadjar was fifth in the Red Bull ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, as both teams suffered a significant pace deficit compared to Mercedes and Ferrari. Max Verstappen was only seventh after reporting issues with his power unit deployment, while Oscar Piastri unable to find grip on his way to eighth.
Racing Bulls duo Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson again locked out row five as the best of the midfield runners.
Antonelli also topped Q2 with a time of one minute, 28.493 seconds lap despite going off track on his first effort. The Mercedes driver then went a tenth clear of Leclerc with Hamilton and Russell third and fourth.
The McLarens showed early signs of performance issues with Norris only ninth, while Piastri was in the drop zone after run one, but Oscar managed to find a way through in seventh as he drove around a lack of grip and balance.
Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto missed Q3 to Lawson by just 0.032 seconds, apologising to his team for not extracting more out of the car. Pierre Gasly was P12 on a tricky weekend for Alpine, followed by Nico Hulkenberg.
Oliver Bearman was P14, disappointed by his Haas car that he felt had been outdeveloped by its midfield rivals, while the Williams team continued to struggle with Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon qualified P15 and P16.
In Q1 the gusty wind conditions made the start of qualifying challenging, with a 20km/h tailwind into Copse and a corresponding crosswind blowing into the Maggotts-Becketts complex. Franco Colapinto suffered a huge spin there on his final attempt as his rear end snapped, which left the Alpine driver unable to improve on P19.
Russell also had a “weird” scare when he went off into the gravel at Luffield on his first attempt as his car locked up, damaging his front wing. That meant he had to set a lap time in the final minutes of the session to advance, but George did so relatively comfortably.
There were also immediate issues for Audi’s Bortoleto, who reported he could not grab sixth gear on his out-lap and returned to the garage with a suspected gearbox problem, but the team managed to get him back out to qualify for Q2.
Esteban Ocon was not so lucky, the Haas driver again being handed a qualifying defeat by his teammate Oliver Bearman, who narrowly advanced to Q2 at Ocon’s expense.
Colapinto got split by the Cadillac drivers of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, with an off-the-pace Aston Martin team again at the rear end of the grid.
So congratulations to Kimi Antonelli. His confidence is sky high at the moment by being so quick over his rivals and teammate. Let’s see how the race will go at Silverstone on race day.
British Grand Prix, qualifying results: 1 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:28.111 2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:28.286 3 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:28.458 4 George Russell Mercedes 1:28.481 5 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford 1:28.746 6 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:28.877 7 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford 1:28.893 8 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1:29.032 9 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford 1:29.305 10 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford 1:29.716 11 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:29.461 12 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes 1:30.063 13 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:30.076 14 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari 1:30.501 15 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes 1:30.623 16 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes 1:31.341 17 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari 1:30.680 18 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari 1:31.227 19 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes 1:31.321 20 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari 1:31.451 21 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda 1:32.863 22 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda 1:33.025
The current Formula 1 championship points leader Kimi Antonelli wins the Silverstone sprint after passing Lewis Hamilton to finish P1 in an action-packed British Grand Prix sprint event.
The Mercedes driver crossed the finishing line 2.7 seconds ahead of the seven-time world champion in a race where Antonelli and Hamilton had proven dominant over the rest of the 22-car field.
McLaren’s Lando Norris completed the podium, but was seven seconds behind the Ferrari driver as two separate front-running groups quickly emerged during the 17-lap sprint.
This was true right from the start as Hamilton and Antonelli dashed clear as the five red lights went out and built a four-second gap across the opening three laps, with a battle behind emerging over third position.
That was a five-way battle between Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc, who all continuously traded positions in the return of yo-yo racing at the high-energy Silverstone.
Drivers were running with different levels of energy deployment through the lap and this led to overtakes at various parts of the Silverstone circuit, whether it be Verstappen’s move on Russell at Abbey, or Leclerc on Piastri at Brooklands.
The duel for third started to slow down come the halfway point and in the end, it was Norris who emerged victorious, but as he locked down his podium, the battle for the lead finally heated up.
That came after Hamilton had built a steady one-second advantage over Antonelli, who closed in come lap eight and made his first attack on the home favourite crowddown into Brooklands.
Hamilton held firm but not for too long, as the Mercedes driver eventually moved by into the lead on Hangar Straight before soon pulled clear from the Ferrari.
It was around this point on lap 10 when the fight behind Norris incresed once more, as Verstappen dropped into sixth behind Russell and Leclerc before a steady final seven laps.
Russell therefore took fourth behind Norris, finished a second behind the McLaren, ahead of fifth-placed Leclerc and Verstappen in sixth, with Piastri taking two points for seventh.
The final points position went to the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson, who moved into the top eight Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar fell out of the points-paying positions at the start. Lawson defended the point from his former teammate late, by squeezing under braking at Stowe.
This all leaves Antonelli with a 43-point championship advantage over second-placed Russell ahead of Sunday’s British Grand Prix, with third-placed Hamilton now four behind.
British Grand Prix, sprint race results: 1 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 26:12.129 2 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +2.745s 3 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes +9.783s 4 George Russell Mercedes +10.639s 5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +12.620s 6 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford +16.550s 7 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes +17.551s 8 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford +30.233s 9 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford +30.953s 10 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford +35.110s 11 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes +40.273s 12 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes +41.026s 13 Nico Hulkenberg Audi +41.680s 14 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +42.499s 15 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari +45.784s 16 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari +49.810s 17 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes +50.379s 18 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes +50.757s 19 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari +75.117s 20 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda +91.872s 21 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda +1 lap 22 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari +1 lap
Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton achieved pole position at his home race, Silverstone, fending off his Mercedes successor Kimi Antonelli.
In a single-lap shoot-out on the soft compound, Antonelli set the provisionally quickest time, only for Hamilton to go faster by a tiny margin of 0.011 seconds to take his first sprint pole since last year’s Chinese Grand Prix.
Hamilton’s one minute, 28.376 seconds lap was a full three tenths quicker than Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, with the four-time champion narrowly beating Charles Leclerc to fourth.
Austrian Grand Prix winner George Russell suffered a difficult SQ3 segment, losing two tenths through Silverstone’s first sector on his way to fifth on the grid.
As expected before the British Grand Prix weekend, McLaren struggled for performance compared to Mercedes and Ferrari, with a less aerodynamically efficient car. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri took sixth and seventh respectively.
Isack Hadjar was ninth, while Racing Bulls continued its impressive form by making it into SQ3 with both cars as Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad rounded out the top ten.
Hamilton led the first series of laps from Antonelli in SQ2, which was run on Pirelli’s medium tyres. Last year’s British Grand Prix winner Norris survived a scare when he only just managed to go through in P10.
There was some improvement at Alpine after a tough weekend at the Red Bull Ring, but Pierre Gasly was still knocked out in P11, followed by Audi duo Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg. Franco Colapinto was P14, ahead of the Williams cars of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.
In SQ1, none of the heavy hitters were under significant pressure, although Lando’s effort only left him P10 as Lewis led Charles – foreshadowing what would be a tricky session for the world champion.
At the back of the grid, Williams survived the segment with both cars, as Sainz held off a disappointed Oliver Bearman by 0.010 seconds for the P16 and final position. Both Haas cars were eliminated with Esteban Ocon in P19, followed by both drivers from Cadillac and Aston Martin.
So the home crowd favourite will start the British Grand Prix sprint race in pole position. There’s only 17 laps in the sprint and if Lewis Hamilton can resist the pressure from Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen, then it will be popular result.
British Grand Prix, sprint qualifying results: 1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:28.376 2 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:28.387 3 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford 1:28.697 4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:28.703 5 George Russell Mercedes 1:28.733 6 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:28.740 7 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1:28.772 8 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford 1:28.835 9 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford 1:28.927 10 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford 1:29.367 11 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes 1:29.482 12 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:29.679 13 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:29.707 14 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes 1:29.983 15 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes 1:30.197 16 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes 1:30.650 17 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari 1:31.083 18 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari 1:31.714 19 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari 1:31.776 20 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari 1:32.020 21 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda 1:32.910 22 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda 1:32.988
George Russell is back in the winners’ circle after a solid drive in the class-leading Silver Arrows to take victory at the Austrian Grand Prix. He finished ahead of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and Kimi Antonelli, his Mercedes teammate and championship contender.
The Mercedes driver crossed the finishing line 1.6 seconds clear of the four-time world champion with Antonelli completing the podium.
This has given Russell his first win since the Melbourne season opener after an disappointing start to 2026, as Antonelli ha taken five victories during that time to claim the championship lead.
But Kimi’s retirement in Barcelona last time out, which was won by Lewis Hamilton, gave Russell the perfect opportunity to strike back his points deficit after finishing second in Spain.
Russell followed that up by snatching pole from Charles Leclerc at the Red Bull Ring after Verstappen’s late crash, with Hamilton and Antonelli behind on the second row.
All four started on the medium tyres and it was a frantic opening lap that saw Russell holding track position, Antonelli go wide at Turns 1 and 3, before Hamilton overtook Ferrari teammate Leclerc at Turn 5.
That put Charles immediately under pressure from Kimi, who had still managed to keep fourth, and the championship leader launched his attack at Turn 1 on the second lap.
Although he briefly got ahead, he went off in the process much like lap one, so was forced to hand third position back heading into Turn 3 but this left room for fifth-placed Verstappen.
The Red Bull driver therefore made quick progress by overtaking Antonelli at Turn 5, before passing Leclerc the following corner, and subsequently closing in on Hamilton.
This set up an awesome fight between the former title rivals with Verstappen lunging down the inside of Turn 3 on lap 11, before Hamilton strike back at Turn 5 and completed his move the following corner.
It put Verstappen onto the gravel at the exit, prompting complaints from the four-time world champion, before the fight resumed after the first pit window where drivers all kept position.
On this occasion, however, Verstappen finally took second from Hamilton by again going down the inside of the Turn 3 hairpin on lap 22, before the Ferrari driver reclaimed place at Turn 5.
But having learnt from the previous occasion where he was on the outside into Turn 6, this time Verstappen moved down the inside of that corner to finally end the wheel-to-wheel duel.
It was only three laps later that Hamilton made his second pitstop though, moving from hards to softs, after Carlos Sainz suddenly lost power and stopped next to the pit wall to cause a VSC.
Yet Hamilton’s rivals stayed out – though Antonelli pitted seconds before the VSC – and in clean air Verstappen began to close on leader Russell while drivers fighting behind.
On lap 30, Antonelli overtook Leclerc for third at Turn 5 before the Ferrari driver dropped into sixth behind Oscar Piastri and Hamilton just seven laps later.
By this point Ferrari had resigned to fighting in the mid-points positions, as the Mercedes duo and Verstappen had moved clear come the second pit window.
It saw Russell stop for hards again on lap 44, just as Verstappen had got within two-seconds, but instead of instantly reacting, Red Bull opted to keep Max out for five extra laps.
That was ultimately the wrong strategy decision though as Verstappen left the pitlane ten seconds behind Russell, who had benefitted from fresher tyres during that window to all-but end hopes of Red Bull victory.
Red Bull was therefore left ruing what could have been and despite Max closing the gap across the final stages, George had done enough to take victory.
But Antonelli was not far behind Verstappen either, just 0.3 seconds, after late pressure, while a further 19.823 seconds off the podium was fourth-placed Piastri with Hamilton completing the top five.
Isack Hadjar and McLaren’s Lando Norris completed late overtakes on Leclerc to take sixth and seventh, the Ferrari in eighth, while Racing Bulls duo of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad rounded out the top ten.
This leaves Antonelli top of the championship on 171 points, 40 clear of second-placed Russell, who has now moved ahead of third-placed Hamilton with 125 points.
Silverstone is the next race and with two British winners in the previous two races, the home fans will be cheering for another popular winner at the British Grand Prix.
Austrian Grand Prix, race results: 1 George Russell Mercedes 1:26:37.979 2 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford +1.611s 3 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +1.986s 4 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes +21.809s 5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +26.393s 6 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford +29.399s 7 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes +31.505s 8 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +45.659s 9 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford +1 lap 10 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford +1 lap 11 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +1 lap 12 Nico Hulkenberg Audi +1 lap 13 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes +1 lap 14 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari +1 lap 15 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes +1 lap 16 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari +2 laps 17 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes +2 laps 18 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda +3 laps Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda DNF Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes DNF Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari DNF Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari DNF
