Kimi Antonelli has topped the timing charts in the final practice session at the Belgian GP, ahead of Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. The
Mercedes driver's mightily impressive lap time of 1:45.990 was enough to edge out Norris and the other frontrunners, putting a marker down ahead of Qualifying later today at the iconic
Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
As is the norm in FP3, drivers were slow to get on track, with
Lewis Hamilton taking the early lead while Antonelli,
George Russell and Verstappen all took around 20 minutes to emerge.
After 30 minutes, with Verstappen and Russell up to P3 and P5, respectively, after their first flying runs, it was Antonelli to come out of the pits last. The 19-year-old stunned the grid with his very first lap, getting into the 1:45s for the first time this weekend, eight tenths up on Hamilton, and a whopping 1.3s ahead of Mercedes teammate Russell.
A quiet session until then, Red Bull's Isack Hadjar
stopped at the exit of the pit lane 25 minutes in, citing
"no power" with his RB22. Luckily for the Frenchman, he was rolled back to the garage and able to get back on track within 10 minutes or so. However, he almost instantly ran into the back of Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso heading down into Turn 8.
As the final ten minutes approached, the front runners got closer to the Italian's time, with Norris and Verstappen a tenth behind Antonelli, who failed to get a proper final flyer in. His teammate Russell improved but was still three tenths down, finishing P4.
Following on from Gasly's FP2 crash yesterday, Hamilton then
brought the session to a dramatic end - going wide at the exit of Fagnes and taking a large chunk of his rear off his
Ferrari, an almost carbon copy of the Gasly accident, and a lot of work for the Scuderia to do before Qualifying.
"Yeah, I've destroyed the car mate. I'm sorry," the radio message from Hamilton.
Here are the full results from FP3 at the Belgian GP:
Belgian Grand Prix Results
Practice 1
Practice 2
Practice 3
ALL
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
|---|
| | MercedesMER | - | 1:45.990 |
| | McLarenMCL | - | 1:46.129 |
| | Red Bull RacingRBR | - | 1:46.138 |
| | MercedesMER | - | 1:46.357 |
| | FerrariFER | - | 1:46.382 |
| | FerrariFER | - | 1:46.750 |
| | McLarenMCL | - | 1:46.785 |
| | AudiAUD | - | 1:46.924 |
| | AudiAUD | - | 1:47.049 |
| | Red Bull RacingRBR | - | 1:47.096 |
| | Racing BullsRCB | - | 1:47.176 |
| | Racing BullsRCB | - | 1:47.294 |
| | AlpineALP | - | 1:47.904 |
| | HaasHAA | - | 1:47.920 |
| | AlpineALP | - | 1:47.949 |
| | WilliamsWIL | - | 1:47.990 |
| | CadillacCAD | - | 1:48.644 |
| | WilliamsWIL | - | 1:48.692 |
| | HaasHAA | - | 1:48.730 |
| | CadillacCAD | - | 1:48.990 |
| | Aston MartinAST | - | 1:50.155 |
| | Aston MartinAST | - | 1:50.631 |