F1 Belgian GP live commentary and updates - Race

Hamilton has escaped the worst effects of that 5s penalty and the double-stack pitstop, emerging ahead of Hadjar, who pitted at the same time.

Norris now leads with Leclerc tucked under his rear wing. The longer second VSC really has saved Ferrari here because not only have they avoided the Hadjar issue, Leclerc now has track position over Antonelli, who is now P3.

No word on the reasoning for those VSCs but we saw a marshal retrieving debris from the track.

Both Ferraris now pitting at the end of lap 20, ditto Piastri.

And Piastri goes straight back past at Les Combes.

Norris passes Piastri.

And Antonelli emerges 2.4s ahead of Verstappen, so Mercedes has successfully defended the undercut threat.

Ferrari looking a bit flat-footed here because Leclerc and Hamilton will have to get past Hadjar before they can attack Verstappen.

Verstappen pits at the end of lap 17, emerging 2s ahead of Hadjar. This is potentially a problem for Ferrari...

We missed Gasly pitting a lap before Colapinto and he's undercut his teammate.

It's an even bigger space now because Lindblad has pitted at the end of lap 16, emerging ahead of Lawson and Gasly.

The Lawson and Colapinto stops might trigger some movement ahead because that's created a gap between Lindblad and Hadjar, who is currently 22s behind Antonelli.

Lawson and Colapinto pit at the end of lap 15 - earlier than expected.

Sainz has also visited the pits, swapping to hards.

Perez back in the pits and reporting potential suspension damage.

So now, strategically, the permutations are getting interesting because Hadjar has just passed Hulkenberg for P12 and he's 21s behind the leaders. He's on the cusp of the pit window for the drivers immediately behind Verstappen, and we don't know whether he plans to stop again.

As we type, Hadjar now passes Bortoleto for P10 (lap 15)

Perez is now back on the hard-compound Pirellis he used to start the race, according to our data screen...

Perez visits the pits again. Eight laps completed on the softs he swapped to after his early stop.

"The incident shouldn't have happened if I'd had the speed down the straight," says a very downcast George Russell.

Norris gets by Lindblad for P6.

While it's early days to talk about pit strategy, let's look at the gaps developing through the field - that's what the leading teams' strategists will be examining.

So behind the top five, there's what is now (lap 11) a seven-second gap to Lindblad. That's opening at a rate of around a second or more per lap.

There's then a cluster of cars to Bortoleto in P11. Behind him there's another gap of 4.4s to his Audi teammate Hulkenberg, who in turn is leading a gaggle of cars to Bearman in P16.

Verstappen now 1.5s off Antonelli with the Ferraris in close proximity now. Piastri has dropped over a second off Hamilton in P5.

Then there's a five-second gap to Arvid Lindblad's VCARB - which has Norris tucked under its rear wing...

Hamilton passes Piastri into Les Combes for P4.

Replay shows it was Piastri who lost a chunk of endplate in that touch with Leclerc the previous lap.

Norris, by the way, has passed Colapinto for P8.

Leclerc and Piastri touch at Les Combes! Leclerc nearly had him on the grass on the approach. Piastri complaining that Charles didn't leave him enough room at the corner itself.

Looks like the Ferrari lost a chunk of endplate too.

Piastri now harrying Leclerc for P3.

Hamilton has managed to chip away at the gap to Piastri and is now within a second again. Verstappen set the fastest lap of the race last time around (lap six).

Lap 6 and Verstappen sweeps by Leclerc on the run to Les Combes.

Looks like Gasly briefly relieved Bortoleto of P10 at La Source before the Audi got back past.

Colapinto and Norris have done well out of that opening lap - Franco is P8, Lando P10.

Meanwhile the Hamilton-Russell incident is being investigated by the stewards.

Hadjar has made two visits to the pits - one to swap to mediums, then another to swap back to hards. Is Red Bull looking to run him the rest of the race without stopping?

Replay also shows Ocon spearing off into the gravel at Malmedy - looks like he had a punctured rear tyre before then since the car just didn't bite at the corner.

Opening lap replay on F1 TV shows Leclerc rocketing past Russell on the run to Les Combes. Looks like Russell was struggling with electrical deployment and made an opportunistic lunge into the corner around the outside of Hamilton, who then clipped his sidepod.

"I had no front end" says Lewis on the radio.

Hamilton is still running in P5 behind Piastri – who has been the key beneficiary of that opening-lap tangle.