Pit lane start awaits Hamilton and Antonelli after difficult Saturday: Here's why!

13:47, 27 Jul 2025
Updated: 13:48, 27 Jul 2025
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Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Antonelli will all start from the pit lane at the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix.
All drivers had a disappointing qualifying session on Saturday afternoon at Spa-Francorchamps.
Lewis Hamilton was provisionally through to Q2, however, his lap time was deleted after the session concluded, relegating him to P16. The Briton was not happy with the result.
"I'm just really sorry to the team. All the hard work, all the testing, the filming day that we did and all the preparation and then you come here and you don't make it through Q1. It's just unacceptable from me," he told GPblog among others.
Young Kimi Antonelli is also having a difficult weekend so far, as similarly to sprint qualifying, he was eliminated in the first session on Saturday as well.
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The two Aston Martins, including Alonso were also eliminated in the first session.

Power unit components changes for these three drivers

As a result, they will all start from the pit lane at Spa this Sunday.
All three drivers receive a new internal combustion engine, turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K.
Together with that, the seven-time world champion also gets a new energy store, control electronics and exhaust system as well.
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Engine1
Engine2

Update: Sainz also to start from the pit lane

It was also revealed that Carlos Sainz will start from the pit lane at Spa this afternoon. That is because of a setup change for the Spaniard.
SainzPenalty
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Friday 27.03.26
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Fri 02:30 AM
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Saturday 28.03.26
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