Hamilton to start from the pit lane in Belgium

The seven-times Formula One world champion won at Spa with Mercedes last year but has had a nightmare so far, qualifying 18th in Friday’s sprint qualifying and finishing 15th in Saturday’s 100km race. (AFP)
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Updated 27 July 2025
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Hamilton to start from the pit lane in Belgium

  • The seven-times Formula One world champion won at Spa with Mercedes last year but has had a nightmare so far, qualifying 18th in Friday’s sprint qualifying and finishing 15th in Saturday’s 100km race

FRANCORCHAMPS: Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix from the pit lane with a new power unit after qualifying only 16th, Ferrari said.
The seven-times Formula One world champion won at Spa with Mercedes last year but has had a nightmare so far, qualifying 18th in Friday’s sprint qualifying and finishing 15th in Saturday’s 100km race.
Hamilton has won five times in Belgium and has been on the podium in all but two of the races he has finished at the longest circuit on the calendar.
The Briton, who moved to the Italian team in January and has yet to stand on the podium for them, apologized to Ferrari on Saturday for a performance he said was unacceptable.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli will also start from the pit lane after those teams also changed engine components.
Sunday’s race is set to be wet. The Formula Two feature race started behind the safety car while the Formula Three race was canceled entirely due to the conditions.


Liverpool’s Slot says football must do more after Vinicius racism allegation

Updated 19 February 2026
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Liverpool’s Slot says football must do more after Vinicius racism allegation

  • The Dutchman said Jeremie Frimpong is still out this weekend but fellow defender Joe Gomez is ready to start if needed

Liverpool manager Arne Slot says more needs ‌to be done to avoid racism in football following allegations by Real Madrid’s Brazilian forward Vinicius Jr that he was subjected to racist abuse from Benfica’s ​Argentine winger Gianluca Prestianni.
Real’s 1-0 Champions League playoff first-leg win at Benfica on Tuesday was overshadowed by Vinicius accusing Prestianni of directing a racist slur at him, a charge denied by the Portuguese club, the player and their manager Jose Mourinho.
European soccer’s governing body UEFA said it was reviewing the incident, which led to the game being halted for 11 minutes under FIFA’s anti-racism protocol.
“In general ‌you can never ‌do enough, you can always do more ​to ‌make ⁠sure ​this (racism in ⁠football) never happens again,” Slot told reporters ahead of Liverpool’s Premier League visit to relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
“We have to try as a football community to do more than society does. That’s maybe not so difficult, by the way. Protocol was followed in the game, that’s the first step,” he said on Thursday.
“I would hope my players ⁠would act in a similar way — immediately address it, ‌and the referee acts in a ‌similar way.”
Regarding the Forest game, Slot expects ​a different set-up under the Midlands ‌club’s new manager Vitor Pereira compared to the meeting in November ‌when Liverpool lost 3-0 at Anfield.
Former Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Pereira was appointed last Sunday to replace the sacked Sean Dyche.
“We only have tonight (Thursday) to see if this new manager changes personnel,” Slot said, referring to Forest’s first ‌game under Pereira at Fenerbahce in a Europa League playoff tie.
“The good thing is they have that ⁠game, and the ⁠manager was in the Premier League last season.”
The Dutchman said Jeremie Frimpong is still out this weekend but fellow defender Joe Gomez is ready to start if needed.
Slot said his side have improved over the past few months, with Liverpool sixth in the table on 42 points from 26 games.
“We have improved compared to three, four months ago. We are in a much better place than months ago,” the 47-year-old added.
“There are more reasons, but the most simple two are how fit we are and that we’re much better ​at set-pieces at the moment.”
Forest ​are languishing in 17th spot, one place and three points above West Ham United in the relegation zone.