Kimi Antonelli was fastest in the third practice ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver set a 45.990, going just under a tenth and a half faster than Lando Norris. The Italian who topped FP2 yesterday is looking to bounce back after dropping out of the points at Silverstone a fortnight ago.
Antonelli had set his best time with his first run on softs about midway through, but in the final half hour, no one could get close to the Mercedes. He will be the favourite for pole position after he topped the timesheet for the second successive session. Norris, meanwhile, goes into qualifying with a ten-place penalty for a power unit change.
Antonelli had to abort his second flying lap after running wide at La Source, reporting “I didn’t get the gear in”, before going again inside the final ten minutes and failing to improve after a big slide through the Les Combes.
Max Verstappen put his Red Bull third, going a hundredth behind Norris and ahead of George Russell by two-tenths. Lewis Hamilton was a quarter of a tenth behind his former teammate, as he went over three and a half tenths faster than Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, but the seven-time champion’s session ended with a huge crash.
Hamilton made a mistake and ran wide at Fagnes, the same place where Pierre Gasly had crashed in FP2 yesterday, which caused him to go into the gravel and clip the wall, damaging his rear wing. As he tried to catch the Ferrari, he went wide into the gravel, clipping the wall with his rear-right tyre to rip his wheel out of alignment.
It gives Ferrari a considerable amount of work to do ahead of qualifying to repair the damage, depending on the impact the collision had on his gearbox. Oscar Piastri was three and a half hundredths behind the Ferraris as he went nearly a tenth and a half ahead of the two Audis. Nico Hulkenberg was a tenth and a quarter faster than teammate Gabriel Bortoleto, with Isack Hadjar completing the top ten.
The second Red Bull didn’t have a smooth final practice; it started with the French-Algerian driver stopped at the end of the pit lane as he headed out for his first run, but his car was recovered by the team.
When Hadjar eventually got onto track struggled to get heat into his tyres, particularly at the front axle. Hadjar already knows he will start Sunday’s race from the back of the grid owing to penalties for multiple changes of power-unit parts.
He ended the session eight hundredths clear of Arvid Lindblad, who was ahead of teammate Liam Lawson by half a second as both Racing Bulls missed out on the top ten. Franco Colapinto was a hundred and a half ahead of Ollie Bearman, as the Haas split the Alpine as he went three hundredths faster than Pierre Gasly.
Valtteri Bottas split the Williams, going six and a half tenths behind Alex Albon and ahead of Carlos Sainz by half a tenth. Esteban Ocon was a quarter of a second faster than former teammate Sergio Perez, while the Aston Martin’s completed the field Fernando Alonso nearly half a second faster than teammate Lance Stroll.
