Lewis Hamilton shows true colours as Brit makes beautiful Kimi Antonelli gesture

Lewis Hamilton was spotted leaving the Mercedes motorhome in the Belgian Grand Prix paddock on Sunday, reportedly offering his support to rookie Kimi Antonelli, who was left devastated by a miserable run of qualifying results at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Antonelli's rookie season has been a tale of two halves thus far. The 18-year-old started on the strongest possible foot in Australia, climbing from the back end of the field to finish P4 on debut in treacherous conditions that caught out plenty of more experienced drivers.

He then scored sixth-place finishes in four of the following five events and notched a sprint race pole position at the Miami Grand Prix. However, it has been downhill since then. Either side of his maiden F1 podium in Montreal have been four DNFs and an 18th place finish in Monaco, leaving him with fewer than half of team-mate George Russell's points.

In Spa, things got worse for the Italian, who remains without a contract for the 2026 season. He was knocked out in the first part of sprint qualifying on Friday, ruining his chances of scoring points the following morning, and it was the same outcome in Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday.

Antonelli was clearly distraught after the session, but according to F1 photographer Kym Illman, he received some support from his predecessor, Hamilton, ahead of the Grand Prix on Sunday.

"It's believed he caught up with Kimi Antonelli to give him some support after the Mercedes rookie's tricky qualifying yesterday when Kimi appeared teary-eyed after the session," Illman explained after snapping the seven-time world champion leaving the Mercedes team base.

Antonelli also received support from another former Mercedes world champion, Nico Rosberg. The now-retired German, who beat Hamilton to the title in 2016, offered former boss Toto Wolff some advice after qualifying.

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"What I would do in Toto's case would be signing a contract with him," Rosberg told Sky Sports F1. "It's not much money. It would give him such a boost of confidence, and then if by any chance it really goes bad towards the end of the year, you can still pay him out and make a change, as we've always seen in F1.

"But just by signing that contract, it would give him certainly this one step change of comfort, relaxation, time. I think that could be something interesting."

Hamilton endured his own personal qualifying struggles in Spa, too. The legendary Brit spun after a spot of rear brake locking at the final chicane on Friday, dumping him out in SQ1, and was then ousted from Q1 on Saturday after his fastest lap time was deleted for a track limit violation.