BELGIAN GP – Max Verstappen fastest by a second and a half in wash-out third practice
Max Verstappen was fastest in a wet third practice ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, the Red Bull driver set a 02:01.565 on the intermediate tyre which put him nearly a second and a half faster than Oscar Piastri. Pierre Gasly put his Alpine third spitting the two McLaren’s he was almost two-tenths behind Piastri and ahead of Lando Norris by nearly two tenths.
Most of the running came during the first ten minutes of the hour-long session before Lance Stroll brought out the red flag, the Aston Martin driver aquaplaned off through Raidillon breaking the front suspension. The incident demonstrates why the drivers and teams are weary of running in mixed conditions during practice sessions as well as the challenges of Spa.
Verstappen’s time was nearly twenty seconds slower than he was in the dry conditions on Friday. The Dutchman goes into qualifying with a ten-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race having exceeded his engine allowance for the season. Further wet weather is expected for qualifying this afternoon.
Cars were allowed to return to track for the final two minutes of the session as the rain eased, but that wasn’t enough time for any further lap times to be set. The risk of returning to the track at the stage was highlighted by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz coming perilously close to hitting a barrier as he ran into the gravel.
Verstappen holds a seventy-six point lead over Norris at the top of the drivers’ standings, while McLaren are looking to continue to reduce Red Bull’s fifty-one-point advantage in the Constructors’ Championship.
Despite going third Norris also made a mistake going through the exit of Les Combes, skating through the gravel, with McLaren later opting to change the floor on his MCL38 as a result. The rain then intensified, and the drivers stopped improving, then started trickling back to the pits, when Stroll crashed at Raidillon having lost the rear of his Aston Martin halfway up the hill from Eau Rouge.
Esteban Ocon put his Alpine fifth but the Frenchman was just under two seconds behind Norris and ahead of Charles Leclerc by nearly eight tenths. Despite his crash Stroll put his Aston Martin seventh nearly half a second faster than Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas. Lewis Hamilton put his Mercedes ninth going nearly four tenths ahead of Sergio Perez to complete the top ten.
Track action resumed with a couple of minutes left on the clock, allowing for some practice starts in the slippery conditions, but Verstappen remained on top.
Alex Albon put his Williams eleventh, he missed out on the top ten by three and a half tenths as he went half a second faster than Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso. The RB’s were fourteenth and fifteenth with Daniel Ricciardo a second faster than his teammate Guanyu Zhou. The second Williams of Logan Sargeant was seventeenth almost four seconds faster than Kevin Magnussen.
While George Russell and Carlos Sainz managed two laps but neither driver set a time during the session.