Kimi Antonelli's 2026 Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix victory put him almost 50 points clear in the drivers' standings as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell tangled at the start.

But all of that attention on the many events unfolding at the front means there's plenty of stories which went under the radar at Spa.

Here's our list of winners and losers from the race.

Winner: Kimi Antonelli (1st)

There was such a great sense of inevitability about Antonelli’s Belgian GP win that meant even a virtual safety car assist for Ferrari, which vaulted Leclerc into the lead, never felt like it was going to stop him.

He now has a 45-point championship lead, but more than that, Antonelli just looks so comfortable right now. The laptime looks to be coming to him so much easier than his team-mate George Russell, and if that doesn’t change, it’s hard to see how he isn’t the massively overwhelming title favourite now. - Josh Suttill

Loser: George Russell (DNF)

50% power unit problem, 50% driver. That was team boss Toto Wolff’s view of where Russell’s sizeable deficit to Antonelli was at Spa.

Both are an issue for Russell who yet again was comprehensively a step behind Antonelli, even before he was the unfortunate victim of his opening lap clash with Lewis Hamilton.

A clash that simply meant Russell lost 25 points to Antonelli rather than the 7-13 he’d have probably lost if he survived lap one. - JS

Winner - Charles Leclerc (2nd)

A more-than-solid effort from Leclerc to get onto the podium after a race Ferrari anticipated would be a difficult one. 

Getting the start and managing to pass Max Verstappen into second place on the opening lap was crucial to the final outcome for Leclerc and once he managed to achieve that, it seemed third was realistic. Perhaps more crucially, however, was escaping without a penalty after his “unfortunate” contact with Oscar Piastri was deemed a racing incident. 

It was ultimately another fantastic bit of teamwork that helped seal second place after Ferrari’s call to pit under the second VSC. Although it was almost impossible for Leclerc to stay ahead of Antonelli given Ferrari’s straight line speed deficiency and the general pace of the Mercedes driver, Leclerc still kept him honest in the final few laps of the race and could have capitalised should there have been a mistake or reliability issue. 

Leclerc absolutely achieved the maximum result available, and Sunday proved he was without a doubt the stronger of the two Ferrari drivers across the whole weekend. - Eden Hannigan

Loser - Lewis Hamilton (4th)

Hamilton enjoyed a net gain of one position but this was a poorly-executed race from Ferrari. 

A harsh - but not unprecedented - five-second time penalty for the lap one incident with George Russell set Hamilton back.

More egregious was the pitstop for hard tyres after that penalty was served, in which a Ferrari team member escaped serious injury when Hamilton was given the signal to go - and the team forgot to tweak his front wing angle.

Clumsy, not catastrophic, but this could have been a podium for the seven-time champion. - Samarth Kanal

Winner - Isack Hadjar (6th)

Hadjar finished sixth and only 12 seconds off Red Bull team-mate Verstappen despite starting at the back of the grid with engine penalties. 

The Frenchman started on hards but pitted twice during the early safety car, once to complete a lap on mediums, and again to continue on hards. By lap 17 he was seventh, which soon became sixth as Lando Norris endured a slow pitstop - and ultimately couldn’t catch up to the Red Bull.

A great return for Hadjar - whose race pace was on par with that of the McLarens - and Red Bull, who gained seven points on McLaren in the chase for third in the constructors’. - SK

Loser: Liam Lawson (12th)

Liam Lawson’s race was going pretty well. Despite being without the upgrade that allowed Arvid Lindblad to qualify eighth versus Lawson’s 11th, he got ahead of Lindblad in the early stages with an excellent start.

But not long after that it all went downhill as he said “we were just too slow” and they were “fighting a losing battle”.

Lawson was vaulted by Franco Colapinto at Les Combes while Lawson himself was fighting Pierre Gasly for the last points position in 10th. In recent weeks the Racing Bulls has been the class of the midfield, so being beaten by both Alpines will be a tough pill to swallow.

It all added up to Lawson being desperate to leave Spa and start afresh next week in Hungary, when he’ll get the upgrade Lindblad used to great effect at Spa. - Jack Benyon

Winner - Gabriel Bortoleto (8th)

Two points-scores in a row for Audi, and this one puts it one point behind Williams.

Having started eighth, Bortoleto finished just ahead of Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad to keep the four points - having delivered all 10 of Audi’s points this season so far.

The Brazilian was appropriately (and quite lengthily) praised for doing a “fantastic job” by race engineer Jose Manuel Lopez Garcia on the radio after the race and it is no surprise that his stock is sky high right now. - SK

Winner: Franco Colapinto (10th)

Franco Colapinto has been struggling in recent races compared to Pierre Gasly in qualifying, but in today’s race there was no sign of any deficit as he pulled off one of the moves of the event to round Gasly and Liam Lawson at the same time into Les Combes.

It may well have mostly been down to battery levels depending on what Gasly and Lawson had - but you can’t question the commitment it took to execute the move.

It meant at least one of the Alpines grabbed points - but while this is ultimately a reason to celebrate, two eighth-place finishes in a row for Audi and a very tidy-looking upgrade on the Racing Bulls means Alpine needs more pace, and fast.

However, Colapinto rightly pointed out he had finished ahead of one Audi and one Racing Bulls, which he said at the moment was “more than what we can do”, emphasising the positive nature of the result. - JB

Loser - Esteban Ocon (17th)

In many ways Ocon deserves plenty of credit for how he managed to keep the car going despite two bits of contact on the first lap that led to him skating across the gravel. However, given the second contact hampered both his and team-mate Ollie Bearman’s races, he lost a few brownie points on that one. 

“Wrong place, wrong time” was how Ocon described the incident, suggesting that Bearman had been struggling with a deployment issue ahead that caused both he and Nico Hulkenberg to take avoiding action. However, Ocon also refused to say it hindered any potential progress he could’ve made given Haas’s complete lack of straight-line speed across the weekend. 

“It was always going to be difficult” to climb higher than his actual 17th place finish, Ocon conceded, given Haas’ issues with rear downforce. However, fairly or unfairly, he also made that almost impossible after his own lap one problems. - EH