A hard-charging race at Spa-Francorchamps saw both Mastercard McLaren Formula 1 Team drivers advance from their starting positions, displaying strong pace to finish the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix in P5 and P7, respectively, for Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
With the team showing encouraging pace throughout the weekend, both drivers demonstrated the potential to challenge at the front despite circumstances that ultimately limited their results. The team therefore leaves the race with positive signs of progress, building on recent developments and carrying strong momentum into the final race weekend before the summer break.
Lando produced an impressive recovery drive, displaying podium-contending pace despite starting from P13 with a 10-place grid penalty after exceeding the permitted number of allocated power electronics units.
Had the Number 1 car started in the grid position deserved on merit, and without the penalty and distributions out of his control experienced throughout the race, the British driver would have been firmly in the fight for a podium finish. Instead, an untimely Virtual Safety Car period, which did not favour his Hard-tyre opening strategy, alongside a technical problem in his pit stop, compounded the setback, restricting Lando to seventh place despite a highly competitive race performance.
Oscar also showed promising speed in the opening stages with a strong drive before his race was compromised by floor damage sustained following contact with Charles Leclerc. The damage cost him between two and three tenths per lap, while he was forced to push harder to maintain pace, which accelerated tyre degradation over the latter stages of each stint.
The Australian driver had made an excellent start from P6 on the grid, dodging a collision between Russell and Hamilton directly in front of him at the Les Combes chicane. He ended the first lap in P4, with the race neutralised behind a Safety Car. At the resumption, Oscar ended up taking the previously mentioned bodywork damage, which ultimately hampered his race. He subsequently slipped back to P5, passed by the other Ferrari of Hamilton.
While Oscar took the place back through his pit stop under the Virtual Safety Car - when he switched from Medium to Hard tyres, in common with the rest of the leading pack - the Ferraris passed him decisively for the position. Oscar was instructed to stay within five seconds of Hamilton at the Flag, as the latter was under investigation for an unsafe release, which eventually did not materialise into a penalty for the driver.
Lando's race was always going to be challenging. The team identified this as a good one to take the 10-place grid drop, as Spa presents genuine opportunities to make up ground. Lando did not hesitate to do so. On an alternate strategy to his teammate, Lando started the race on a Hard tyre, planning to go long. He was up to P10 when the race was neutralised behind the Safety Car on Lap 1 and then picked his way through the midfield when the race went green. He passed Gabriel Bortoleto on Lap 5, Franco Colapinto on Lap 7, Liam Lawson on Lap 9, and Arvid Lindblad on Lap 12.
With others around him choosing to box, Lando kept going, inheriting the lead as those on the Medium still running came into the pits. He gradually slipped back through the field, and made his stop on Lap 30, after being caught by Oscar. There was a technical problem with the rear-left during his stop for a Medium tyre, costing him a few seconds and leaving him in P8.
In hindsight, having seen Lando's pace on the Medium, it would have been better to double stack the two McLaren cars, even though he would have lost time being the second car into the box.
In the final stint of the race, Lando worked hard to again pass Bortoleto for P7 and set about chasing down an 11-second gap to Isack Hadjar. Lando set a string of 13 Fastest Laps in the chase, but came up just short, finishing an agonising 0.7s behind the French driver. Despite this disappointing end, Lando recorded his 20th career Fastest Lap with a time of 1m48.890s.
With further upgrades planned over the coming rounds, the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team are optimistic about its trajectory following encouraging signs since Silverstone. Attention now turns to Hungary and the Netherlands, where the leading teams are expected to remain particularly competitive. McLaren Mastercard's development focus is centred on improving braking performance and cornering capability, with the first elements arriving in Hungary and additional updates scheduled throughout the remainder of the season. The objective is clear: to consistently challenge for podiums and victories as the Championship enters its decisive phase.
Andrea Stella: "We leave this weekend with mixed feelings but are encouraged by the underlying pace shown. It's clear our package adapted better to this circuit, and our main objective is now to ensure we can keep improving, and we know this will require upgrades to our car. While the PU operated reliably and effectively, opportunities are still clearly possible in terms of PU exploitation, so we will keep on working with our partners at HPP to enable us to extract all of the lap time available. However, we leave Spa-Francorchamps with a smaller points haul than our potential.
"Lando was very solid today, and with a clean race, the car had the pace to contend for a podium. Without the penalty, the time we lost due to a technical issue in the pit stop, and a Safety Car timing that didn't suit our Hard tyre strategy, he would have been fighting at the front from his natural position of P3 on the grid. Oscar also drove very well and also had the potential to be on the podium, but the floor damage from the contact with Charles Leclerc cost us between two and three tenths of lap time, and forced him to push the tyres, which accelerated degradation in the second half of both stints.
"We know we must improve our braking and cornering to challenge our main opponents on tracks like Hungary and the Netherlands. We have upgrades coming for the second part of the season, and while not everything will be solved at once, our objective is clear - we want to consistently fight for podiums and, ultimately, victories."
Kimi Antonelli took victory in Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix whilst George Russell had an unfortunate opening lap which led to a DNF. Kimi started on pole with George lining up P3; both drivers suffered from a lack of boost which affected power on the opening lap and that cost them speed on the run to Turn 5. Whilst Kimi lost position to the Red Bull of Max Verstappen into Turn 2, he gained that back into Turn 5 whilst George got swamped by cars behind and suffered contact with the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton which ended his race. After the resulting Safety Car, Kimi ran a conventional Medium-Hard one-stop, pitting to cover Verstappen and retaining position. The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc gained advantage on track by pitting under the Virtual Safety Car before Kimi closed a gap of three seconds down to retake the lead with just under 10 laps to go. He slowly dropped the Ferrari out of overtake mode to take his sixth win of the season and the team's eighth. The team now heads to Budapest for the final race before the summer shutdown.
Toto Wolff: It's a bittersweet day here in Spa. Kimi has been strong all weekend and drove a brilliant race to take the win. He kept focused after losing the lead to Leclerc under the Virtual Safety Car and, just like in Silverstone, he chased the Ferrari down. This time he was able to take the victory though, and it was very well deserved.
George on the other hand was an unfortunate first lap casualty. Both our cars suffered from a lack of boost which affected power on the run out of Turn 1, the reason for which we are investigating, but George was impacted more severely and lost several positions. He was then turned around at Turn Five to end his race. He has had another tough weekend where he has faced several issues outside of his control, and we are working hard to get on top of them.
As a team, we come away without having maximised our points scoring again. We have a strong package that is clearly capable of fighting for wins and both championships. We are working hard to improve our reliability as that is the clearest area of weakness. With one race left before the summer shutdown, we will be giving it our all to do that and go into the break with as much momentum as possible.
Andrew Shovlin: Today was one of contrasting fortunes. Kimi took a well-deserved win, having lost the lead through no fault of his own. He showed great pace all weekend and was able to use that to good effect to catch and pass the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. He was robbed of the chance to do that at Silverstone, so this victory was particularly sweet.
Sadly, George's weekend has been tougher, and his race came to a premature end. Both cars suffered from a lack of boost which affected power on the opening lap, which put them under pressure. George's issue was more extreme, and he ended up in a pack of cars at Turn 5 after losing several positions before being contacted by the Ferrari of Lewis (Hamilton). It is another frustrating end to a difficult weekend for him, but we know that he will reset and come back in a positive frame of mind in Hungary.
Despite winning here, we are still finding issues with these regulations. It is something we are all working as hard as we can to get on top of, but we've clearly got more learning ahead of us. We will need to keep improving if we are to maximise our points scoring potential and fight for the championships as the season progresses.
Laurent Mekies: "A strong weekend for the whole Team. It was good to be in the top three in Qualifying, but it's even better to be here on race day and have the pace. As we said yesterday, Kimi was probably beyond us today, but behind him Max was right there. He was running well for P2 on merit, then the VSC happened and that cost us. But that's part of the game. We are happy about our 300th podium, as well as Max's 130th podium.
"Isack also showed extremely strong pace, coming through from 21st on the grid to take P6 at the flag. It was certainly his best race with us. It seems like every time he takes another step forward. It's great to have two very strong cars.
"The Team back in Milton Keynes and at the track is working incredibly hard on all fronts to bring and unlock more performance and we were able to fight for the podium in the last three races. We won't stop until we find those final few tenths needed to get back to winning races."
Scuderia Ferrari HP leaves Belgium with its ninth podium finish of the season, the fourth courtesy of Charles Leclerc - the 54th of his Formula 1 career - and Ferrari's 845th. The race at Spa-Francorchamps saw the team score a total of 30 points thanks also to Lewis Hamilton's fourth-place finish, which sees him move back up to second in the Drivers' Championship.
The race. Starting on Medium tyres, Charles and Lewis both got away cleanly, with Leclerc producing an outstanding run along the Kemmel Straight, making perfect use of both energy deployment and the slipstream to overtake Max Verstappen and George Russell to run second behind Kimi Antonelli. Exiting the chicane, Hamilton and Russell made contact, the Englishman ending up in the gravel which brought out the Safety Car. Lewis' Ferrari sustained only minor damage, allowing the Briton to continue, albeit with a five-second penalty to be served at his pit stop. On lap five, Verstappen overtook Leclerc, while four laps later Hamilton passed Oscar Piastri to move up to fourth. As the run of pit stops began, Ferrari opted to extend both drivers' opening stint, a strategic decision that paid off on lap 19 when a Virtual Safety Car, deployed to clear debris from the track, provided the ideal opportunity to pit both drivers for Hard tyres while losing only around half the usual pit stop time. Charles rejoined in second place, behind Lando Norris, who had started on Hard tyres, and ahead of all those who had already stopped. Hamilton served his penalty and rejoined in sixth behind Piastri. On lap 23, Leclerc overtook Norris to take the lead, with Antonelli also getting past the Englishman three laps later. The Italian got ahead of Charles on lap 34, but the Monegasque remained right on his gearbox all the way to the chequered flag to claim second place. Hamilton, who had moved up to fifth after Norris made his pit stop, gained another position by overtaking Piastri on track to finish fourth, just a few seconds behind Verstappen.
Formula 1 is back in action next weekend at the Hungaroring for the Hungarian Grand Prix, the eleventh round of the season, and the final race before the summer shutdown.
Fred Vasseur: A very good result for the team. We were able to fight at the front with Charles who had a great start and a solid pace for the entire race. As for Lewis' penalty, I feel it was definitely harsh because it was a first-lap incident, but there's no point discussing it any further. Kimi (Antonelli) had the quicker car and we were losing to him on the straights, but with a good start and the right strategy we were still able to fight. Honestly, both here and at Silverstone we have done better than expected, which says a lot about the great job the team has done to allow us to perform consistently well. Now we will focus on Budapest, which is a completely different track, where we want to finish on a positive note before the summer break.
James Vowles, Team Principal: "We got the most out of the car that we could today. Carlos got caught up in a lap 1 incident, which unfortunately cost quite a bit in terms of performance. We were able to rectify that with a front wing change at the stop, which proved to be the right decision, enabling him to come back and fight in the second half of the race.
"With Alex, it was a solid performance all weekend and he didn't put a foot wrong. We know we've fallen back relative to the field. There's a long way to go in the season, and the key is to make sure that we rectify the mistakes we suffered across the winter, so that we can continue to add performance to the car."
Alan Permane: "We had a decent race here in Spa, but certainly not without learnings to take forward. We were unlucky with the Virtual Safety Car which allowed Audi to pit stop and subsequently come out in front of Arvid. Without that, Arvid had the pace to finish in P8. Unfortunately, Liam experienced deployment issues throughout the race which impacted his pace. Additionally, there will be more pace to extract in Hungary when he receives the full upgrade package on his car. The upgrades are looking very strong, so the team back at both our bases have done a fantastic job. We look forward to racing in Hungary ahead of the well-deserved summer break."
Mike Krack: "It was not an easy afternoon and we did not have the pace to compete. So we simply tried to maximise those things in our control - being strong operationally and delivering the best strategy. Fernando completed the race in P19, while Lance reported a car issue on lap 25 and retired. The focus now shifts to Budapest and introducing a new package for the AMR26."
TGR Haas F1 Team finished with Ollie Bearman 14th and Esteban Ocon 17th at the Belgian Grand Prix, held Sunday at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
Bearman and Ocon took the start from 14th and 16th positions respectively, due to grid penalties for other drivers, and both ran Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires. Unfortunately, the pair made light contact halfway around the opening lap, and each gained punctures, with Bearman and Ocon coming into the pits at the end of the lap, taking on White hard tires. The Safety Car was deployed due to an incident elsewhere that accounted for George Russell.
Bearman took the restart in P15, with Ocon holding P21, though the Frenchman swiftly dispatched the Cadillac and Aston Martin drivers to move into P17. Ocon pitted again on lap 16, for another set of hard tires, while Bearman came in on lap 20, also for hard tires, just as a brief virtual safety car period due to on-track debris came to an end. Bearman resumed in P15 but worked his way past Williams' Alex Albon to move into P14, while Ocon maintained P17 through to the checkered flag.
TGR Haas F1 Team holds seventh position in the Constructors' Championship on 21 points.
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "Today was a bit of a messy day, so that's a shame. The lap 1 incident between teammates shouldn't happen, so we just need to make sure that doesn't happen again. At times where Ollie could show the pace, it was strong, better than qualifying, so that's a positive and a result of the ongoing work everyone is doing to improve the car's characteristics. We had some operational errors today, which we'll look into and improve upon. In Budapest, it's going to be a very different challenge, but this weekend we made progress and next week we'll have very different conditions. I think we'll learn even more, and I want to go into the summer shutdown making another step forward."
Audi Revolut F1 Team capped off an encouraging Belgian Grand Prix weekend by converting strong pace into another points finish, as Gabriel Bortoleto delivered a confident drive to eighth place at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
After impressing in qualifying on Saturday, the Brazilian backed up his performance with a clean race to secure valuable championship points. It was an afternoon of mixed fortunes for the team, as the pace shown across the weekend could not be fully converted into results on Nico's side of the garage.
With just one more race before the summer break, today's result provides further evidence of the team's steady progress heading into the second half of the season.
Allan McNish, Racing Director: "To come away from Spa with another points finish is a fantastic result for the team, especially at a circuit we didn't expect to suit our car. Gabriel delivered an excellent drive from start to finish, and everyone executed when it mattered most.
"A special mention has to go to the pit crew. A 2.1-second stop for Gabriel, followed immediately by a 2.7-second double stack for Nico, was a sensational piece of execution under pressure. Those stops put Gabriel ahead of the Racing Bulls at a crucial moment, and from there he managed the race brilliantly to secure another eighth-place finish.
"Nico's afternoon was more challenging. We were able to gain track position through strategy, but we simply didn't have the straight-line performance needed to attack or make further progress. That was frustrating because his pace was comparable to Gabriel's, but he didn't have the tools to fight the cars around him.
"Overall, we'll gladly take the points and the positives from this weekend. Leaving Spa with another top-eight finish and another strong team performance gives us good momentum heading into Budapest next weekend."
Flavio Briatore: "We leave Belgium with one point after Franco's P10 finish meaning we remain in P5 in the Championship but level on points with Racing Bulls. They have done a much better job than us in recent weeks to add performance to their car and that trend has continued, and probably extended, here in Spa. We saw some good, fair, wheel to wheel racing throughout, especially from Pierre and Franco who also kept it clean and entertaining between themselves; this time the result fell Franco's way so well done to him. We know Hungary won't see a complete turnaround in results or competitive order but we must continue our efforts off-track to find more performance post-summer break and give both drivers more tools to fight much higher up the grid than what we are currently."
The Cadillac Formula 1® Team has finished a chaotic Belgian Grand Prix with Valtteri Bottas in 18th position. In a race marked by safety cars, Valtteri steered the MAC-26 cleanly past the flag to claim a further finish for the American squad.
Checo Perez retired on lap 13 following a mechanical issue on his rear suspension. He had graduated through the field and was closer to Esteban Ocon of Haas until a rear suspension issue curtailed his race.
The team will now regroup before the Hungarian Grand Prix in one week.
Graeme Lowdon, Team Principal: "Valtteri put in a strong performance to record another finish today, again comfortably ahead of the Astons. It is disappointing not to finish with both cars and we will look at the reasons for Checo's retirement to get back to the reliability we saw earlier in the year. Budapest is a very different track to the fast, flowing Spa but we know that, as a team, we have the strength and resilience to take on the challenge."
Kimi Antonelli won the Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, prevailing at the end of a duel with Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari driver finished second, ahead of Max Verstappen. All three started on the Medium compound before switching to the Hard.
Following George Russell's retirement, Antonelli strengthened his lead in the championship battle over his closest rival and team-mate. Russell was also overtaken today by Lewis Hamilton, who finished the Grand Prix in fourth place and is now 45 points off the lead, five more than Russell.
All compounds were used today, with the majority of drivers opting to start on Mediums. Lando Norris instead lined up on Hards and did not pit until lap 30 to switch to the C3. However, he was not the driver to complete the most laps on the C2: Valtteri Bottas ran 31 laps on the white-marked tyre before finishing the race on Softs.
The C4, meanwhile, was used extensively by Carlos Sainz, who started from the back of the grid in an attempt to recover positions. The Williams driver completed 14 laps on the Soft before switching to the Hard.
Dario Marrafuschi: "All three compounds played a role in the Belgian Grand Prix strategies, with few variations between the teams and all broadly within the scenarios already anticipated yesterday.
"Tyre degradation was lower than in previous days because track temperatures, partly due to a few drops of rain, were cooler than those recorded earlier in the weekend. This allowed drivers to extend their stints.
"Only Ferrari opted to deviate slightly from the strategies of its direct rivals, extending the opening stint on Mediums while waiting for a neutralisation, which ultimately came. This enabled the team to save time during the pit stop and fit the Hard tyres to both drivers on the same lap.
"No one, with the exception of Sainz and Bottas, chose to start on Softs, a strategy which, in our view, could have offered some benefit to cars in the second half of the grid if combined with a slightly earlier stop to exploit the undercut. From a strategic standpoint, despite the presence of a Safety Car and a VSC, the race proved fairly straightforward."
