George Russell rues more misfortune after crash as Kimi Antonelli stretches lead
By Philip Duncan, Press Association F1 Correspondent, Spa-Francorchamps
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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On Sunday, he started well, but then a separate mechanical glitch saw him gobbled up by Verstappen, Oscar Piastri and Hamilton on the 200mph opening stampede to Les Combes.
Russell drew back alongside Hamilton under braking for the right-left combination, and then briefly ahead, but he was not afforded enough room by his former Mercedes team-mate.
The left-front tyre of Hamilton’s Ferrari made contact with the rear-right of Russell’s Mercedes and the latter was sent out of control and into the gravel trap. Russell’s race was instantly over.
“The incident with Lewis was a racing incident,” said a downcast Russell. “He didn’t do it on purpose. He was more to blame than I. But he didn’t do anything reckless.
“I was just angry I was in that position in the first place. I got a great start, and I was ready to fight the two guys ahead of me up to turn five, and instead I get swamped by three drivers because of another problem.
“For whatever reason the battery decided not to recharge at turn one. I got to the top of Eau Rouge with zero per cent battery, and quite frankly it was dangerous. I shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place, and that is why I am most angry.
“It was a different problem (to Saturday), but it is every day now. I am numb to the disappointment. When it happens so often you just get used to it.”
An apologetic Hamilton said: “I will text George later on. The last thing you ever want to do is come together with a team-mate, or your former team, which I respect and George, too, but it happened.”
The safety car was deployed after the first-lap drama and the race resumed on lap five with Antonelli in control. It remained that way until the sole round of stops with Leclerc, the last of the leading trio to stop, capitalising on a VSC deployed for debris, to take the lead.
However, Leclerc could not prevent Antonelli from blasting past to take his first win since the Monaco Grand Prix on June 7 and lay down another championship marker to the beleaguered Russell with just one round to come – in Hungary next weekend – before the sport’s summer break.
