F1 Belgian GP winners and losers: Charles Leclerc overshadows Lewis Hamilton

Oscar Piastri halted McLaren teammate Lando Norris’s recent charge with victory in a heavily-delayed, wet-dry Belgian Grand Prix to take back momentum in the F1 2025 title battle.

Here are our biggest winners and losers from F1’s latest sprint weekend at Spa-Francorchamps…

Winner - Oscar Piastri

After being left frustrated to have missed out on pole position in qualifying, Piastri turned in one of his most impressive drives of the season so far to secure his sixth win of 2025 and reclaim some much-needed momentum.

Piastri had been defeated by Norris at the last two events and was determined not to make it a third. The Australian overtook Norris at the first attempt when the rain delayed race got underway on Lap 5, bravely blasting past off-line in the spray along the Kemmel Straight with a decisive move.

From there, Piastri controlled proceedings and pulled clear of Norris to score an important victory which moves him 16 points clear in the world championship.

Loser - Kimi Antonelli

A brutal weekend for young Kimi Antonelli. Having spun out of SQ1, the 18-year-old could only finish 15th in the sprint race before suffering another early elimination in regular qualifying, leaving him close to tears.

Antonelli is not having a good time in F1 at the moment, and is lacking confidence behind the wheel of his Mercedes car. This was underlined by a difficult grand prix in which he could only take 16th.

Winner - Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc thrived in his upgraded Ferrari to claim his fifth podium of 2025.

After taking fourth in sprint qualifying and the shortened race, Leclerc improved to third in Saturday’s regular qualifying as he pipped Max Verstappen by just 0.003s with a superb lap in Q3.

The Monegasque impressively converted that into the final spot on the podium by holding off Verstappen’s Red Bull throughout the 44-lap race at Spa, extracting the maximum possible result for Ferrari.

Loser - Lewis Hamilton

There could not have been a starker contrast between the Ferrari drivers in Belgium.

Although Hamilton produced an impressive charge from the pitlane to salvage seventh in Sunday’s grand prix, it was otherwise a weekend to forget for the seven-time world champion.

While Leclerc shined, Hamilton failed to progress from the first stage of qualifying twice in two days, and took the blame for the track limits violation which left him only 16th and eliminated in Q1 on Saturday.

Hamilton somewhat saved his blushes with his aggressive recovery on Sunday, but we can’t overlook the struggles which plagued the rest of what was ultimately a nightmare weekend.

Winner - Max Verstappen and Red Bull

Verstappen kicked off Red Bull’s post-Christian Horner era in the perfect way with a brilliant victory to overcome Piastri in the Belgium sprint race after splitting the McLarens in sprint qualifying.

While he will be frustrated to have been pipped to third in qualifying, and been unable to find a way past Leclerc to reach the podium, it was a better showing from Red Bull in both wet and dry conditions at Spa.

For Red Bull, an upgrade package yielded gains both in terms of performance and helping cure balance issues, while Yuki Tsunoda appeared to turn a corner - despite missing out on points in the grand prix - under the new leadership of Laurent Mekies.

Loser - Lando Norris

Norris let an opportunity to almost erode Piastri’s championship lead slip through his fingers at Spa as he missed out on a hat-trick of wins that could have turned the tide in the F1 2025 title battle.

The Briton’s superb pole lap was undone by being caught out by Piastri on the first lap, before he then hurt his own chances of a fightback with sloppy errors which cost him crucial lap time. This was a missed opportunity for Norris.

Winner - Alex Albon

Alex Albon extracted everything out of his upgraded Williams to claim a stunning fifth on the grid - ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes - in qualifying, which paved the way for his excellent result on Sunday.

Despite losing out to Russell early on in the race, Albon secured a strong sixth place with a strong and mistake-free drive which was capped off by resisting heavy pressure from Hamilton’s Ferrari.

Loser - Carlos Sainz

It was a tale of contrasting fortunes at Williams, with Carlos Sainz’s weekend ending on a disappointing note. After taking a strong sixth in the sprint race, things went drastically downhill for Sainz, who could only qualify 15th for the grand prix, and went on to finish a lowly 18th.

Winner - Gabriel Bortoleto

After watching teammate Nico Hulkenberg grab the headlines with his stunning podium finish at Silverstone, it was Gabriel Bortoleto’s turn to take the limelight at Sauber in Belgium.

The Brazilian reached Q3 for the second time this season with an eye-catching performance in qualifying, before pulling off a faultless drive to ninth and his second points finish in F1.

Loser - Franco Colapinto

On a weekend teammate Pierre Gasly once again put in an impressive performance to score points, it was another disappointing showing from Franco Colapinto.

The under-pressure Argentine was in the bottom five in both qualifying sessions at Spa and his struggles continued in both the sprint race and main grand prix, where he laboured home to 19th place.