Lewis Hamilton causes Belgian Grand Prix DELAY after spinning out

A session-ending incident for Lewis Hamilton caused a delay to sprint qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend.

Hamilton was knocked out of sprint qualifying in SQ1 as his final flying lap ended in a huge spin at the last corner, while he was up on time compared to 15th-placed Alex Albon.

That spin also splayed a huge amount of gravel all over the circuit, causing a delay to the start of SQ2 as marshals attempted to sweep away the gravel.

A trip into the gravel earlier in the session from Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli had caused a similar situation at a different part of the track, and SQ2 was delayed for around five minutes as both sections of the track were cleared ahead of the rest of the qualifying session.

Hamilton's 2025 struggles

Hamilton's spin piled more misery onto his first season with Ferrari. Barring a sprint race pole position-race win double at the Chinese GP, Hamilton has not so much as been on the podium throughout 2025, and his best grand prix performance is fourth.

The Brit had looked quick enough for a top 10 start at least, with Ferrari having brought a number of upgrades to Spa-Francorchamps.

However, it was a huge error that meant that the 40-year-old spun out of sprint qualifying, and he will now start Saturday's sprint race all the way down in 18th position.

Martin Brundle suggested on Sky Sports F1 that it may have been a technical issue for the seven-time champion: "It looks like a technical issue.

"Nobody will be more surprised than Lewis. It’s almost like the engine sort of stalled out, and every time he pulled another shift it’s just locked the rear axle."

Sky Sports F1's Anthony Davidson then added: "I hear a lot of locking in the rear axle on the car. That clunking is backlash in the gearbox. I don't blame the driver for that moment.

"Something is going on there in the downshift phase of that Ferrari. I give Lewis the benefit of the doubt for that one."

Antonelli, meanwhile, will start right at the back of the grid barring any penalties, with the young Italian not able to put in a time faster than any of the 19 other drivers on the grid.

Both Hamilton and Antonelli will likely now use Saturday's sprint race as a chance to collect much-needed data for their teams ahead of main race qualifying and Sunday's Belgian GP, and both will be thankful that these mistakes happened in the first competitive session of the weekend, and not later on.

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