– “Kimi can buy me dinner …”, jokes Cadillac driver Valtteri Bottas after the Belgian Grand Prix, which Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli was able to win. The young Italian started the race from pole position but temporarily fell behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
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The Scuderia used the virtual safety car for the Monegasque’s pit stop, allowing Leclerc to take the lead shortly before halfway through the race. However, Antonelli then managed to gradually reduce his gap of around three seconds. By lap 33, the two were only 0.9 seconds apart when they caught up to Bottas’s Cadillac.
The Finn, who had started the race from 19th place, was on the verge of being lapped. For Leclerc, this was unfortunate because it happened precisely between the fast Fagnes corners and the right-left Campus/Stavelot section.
“They came up so fast, it really surprised me,” Bottas admitted after the race. When the Finn finally gave way with his Cadillac to let Leclerc pass, Antonelli had already significantly reduced his gap to the leading Ferrari driver.
Bottas jokes: “He can buy me dinner …”
Additionally, the championship leader briefly benefited from the slipstream of the Cadillac on the way to Blanchimont and was able to close to less than half a second behind Leclerc. At the start of the following lap, Antonelli used the Ferrari’s slipstream, overtook on the Kemmel straight, and regained the lead.
“I don’t know, did that make a difference? Was [Leclerc] overtaken afterwards?” asked Bottas, who came to the pit stop immediately after the situation and therefore did not even notice the Italian’s maneuver. The Finn only got the answer during the media round.
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“Kimi can buy me dinner …”, joked Bottas, who did not have to fear any penalty for the action. If it had been a clear case of obstruction, the race stewards would probably have investigated the incident – but that did not happen.
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Bottas reacted within the allowed time window to the blue flags. As the Finn already explained, the two leaders approached much faster than he had expected: At the start of the lap, they were still about five seconds behind him and were already around one second faster than the Cadillac in the first sector.
Photos: F1: Belgian Grand Prix (Spa) 2026
In the second sector, where the higher downforce of the top cars was particularly evident, the gap then shrank rapidly. Bottas completed this section in 52.547 seconds, while Leclerc did it in 49.155 seconds – more than three seconds faster.
Shortly afterwards, the Ferrari driver had already caught up to the Cadillac. “I think today clearly showed again where our problems lie,” says Bottas. “It is still partly about reliability, but our tire wear is also quite high.”
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“In my opinion, this is mainly due to the fast corners. We simply lack downforce there, so we slide more and wear the tires more,” says the Cadillac driver. “But yes, of course, we have to keep working on that.”
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