Belgian F1 live updates: Follow latest from today’s race with Kimi Antonelli on pole at Spa

I wrote earlier this week about the anticipated differences the drivers would feel when driving Spa, one of F1’s most iconic tracks, with the 2026 cars. This was after a number of them expressed fears last time out at Silverstone that it could lose some of its magic.

Many of Spa’s great corners haven’t really been corners for some time, chiefly Eau Rouge and Raidillon, as the drivers sweep through the turns at full power.

But Pouhon, the long, sweeping left-hander in the middle sector had long stood as one of the track’s great challenges, testing a driver’s bravery to keep as flat as possible on corner entry, before hanging around the grip and downforce provided by the tires and sophisticated F1 aerodynamics.

Now, that too has become an easy, flat-out section.

That’s because by this point of the lap, the energy-starved 2026 engines were only running on their internal combustion power, with the battery energy being reserved for use on the final sector.

“From the apex afterwards, we have no (battery) deployment, so it was easy,” said pole-sitter Kimi Antonelli. “It was flat all the way. It was not like last year.”

Max Verstappen, who has been one of the fiercest critics of this year’s cars, said that it was a “different Spa” but that he would “mentally readjust to it.”

“For most of sector two, you run on just the engine, so what is that, 450-500 horsepower, something like that?” he added. “Which is, I guess, more or less what a Formula 3 car has, but with F1 downforce. So you can imagine that it’s not very exciting to drive …”