Antonelli sends warning ahead of qualifying as Hamilton hits the wall at Spa

The Briton only set the fourth-fastest time, finishing three and a half tenths behind Antonelli. Lando Norris ended the session second, ahead of Max Verstappen, with the two most recent world champions both around a tenth and a half slower than the Mercedes driver.

The two Ferrari drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, finished fifth and sixth respectively. During the final moments of the session, Hamilton also hit the wall with his right-rear tyre, making the next few hours before qualifying a busy period for the Ferrari crew.

The final practice session in Belgium got off to a quiet start. When the pit lane opened, Verstappen was, for example, still chatting with his team rather than sitting in his car, and the first drivers did not head out on track until three minutes into the session.

After the first 15 minutes, Hamilton topped the timesheets with a 1:47.4, becoming the first frontrunner to switch to the soft tyres. The Ferrari driver then improved further, lowering the benchmark to a 1:46.7.

Around the halfway mark of the session, Hadjar's car suddenly lost power as he was about to exit the pit lane, forcing the RB22 to be pushed back to the Red Bull garage. The Frenchman is already set to start from the back of the grid after taking on new power unit components for the weekend. After the team resolved the issue, however, he was able to return to the track and continue his session.

Meanwhile, Antonelli made his first real statement of the day by jumping to the top of the timesheets with a 1:45.9, a lap that was eight tenths quicker than Hamilton's and Verstappen's previous best efforts.

With 15 minutes remaining, the drivers bolted on a fresh set of soft tyres for their final flying laps ahead of qualifying. Russell improved on his final run and closed the gap to Antonelli, but still finished fourth, more than three tenths adrift of his teammate. Antonelli, meanwhile, was unable to improve on his final attempt.

The two Ferrari drivers were the last to complete their flying laps. Hamilton could only improve to fifth, while Leclerc made a mistake at Turn 1.