F1 Belgian GP: Kimi Antonelli fastest as Lewis Hamilton crashes at session's end

Kimi Antonelli concluded the final Formula 1 practice session at the Belgian Grand Prix on top, as Lewis Hamilton crashed at the end of the session on the exit of Turn 13.

Antonelli had set a 1m45.990s with his opening soft-tyre run of the session, laying down the gauntlet for his challengers at the end of the first 30 minutes of the session – but it proved too difficult to beat.

Hamilton attempted to get closer to Antonelli’s effort with his final soft-tyre lap of the session, but produced a near carbon-copy of Pierre Gasly’s accident in FP2; the Ferrari driver carried too much speed through the second part of Les Fagnes and drew 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.

After sparse running across the opening 10 minutes of the session given the limited quantity of tyres available, the Spa-Francorchamps circuit soon became a touch more lively. With his first run on the soft tyres, Hamilton was first to break below the 1m47s mark with his 1m46.789s lap – his second run on the same set of soft tyres.

Max Verstappen and George Russell were not able to beat this on their first efforts on the soft tyre, but Antonelli could; the Italian rifled across the line with this 1m45.990s to sit a mammoth eight tenths clear of Hamilton. Verstappen, meanwhile, had found time with his second lap – but fell just half a tenth shy of Hamilton’s effort.

Lewis Hamilton ended the session in the wall

Photo by: Marc Fleury

On a second set of tyres, Verstappen uncovered much of the time back over Antonelli and soaked up a slipstream from Valtteri Bottas’ Cadillac in the final sector – but still fell 0.148s shy at the line of the Italian’s benchmark. This was subsequently beaten by Lando Norris by 0.009s, a late first effort on softs having spent most of the session producing a long run on the medium compound.

Antonelli did not improve on his second effort with new softs; he aborted the first run after going wide at La Source, traced to his inability to get the final gear in early enough to benefit from a final burst of engine braking. On the follow-up, he was over a quarter of a second down on his best – but this was deleted for track limits in any case.

Thus, Norris and Verstappen slotted into second and third on the timing boards. Russell had got up to fourth with his second set of tyres, and then backed off on a second run after encountering Sergio Perez through Raidillon. Charles Leclerc endured a similar fate on a new set of softs, this time finding a slow Pierre Gasly at Turn 9, but moved up to sixth – one position below Hamilton – on the follow-up effort.

Oscar Piastri once again trailed Norris and was seventh overall, half a second down on his team-mate. Both Audis found their way into the top 10, Nico Hulkenberg eighth from Gabriel Bortoleto, while Isack Hadjar was 10th overall.

Hadjar overcame a stop and a stall in the pit lane, but his Red Bull was recovered by his mechanics and he was able to continue with the session. The Frenchman reported struggles with an inability to get heat into his tyres, particularly at the front axle. He ended the session just 0.08s clear of Arvid Lindblad, who was ahead of Liam Lawson.

F1 Belgian GP: FP3 Results 

All Stats

 

Cla	Driver	#		Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Interval	Tyres	km/h
1	A. Antonelli Mercedes	12		Mercedes	Mercedes	13	1’45.990		S	237.894
2	L. Norris McLaren	1		McLaren	Mercedes	21	+0.139 1’46.129	0.139	S	237.582
3	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	3		Red Bull	Red Bull	14	+0.148 1’46.138	0.009	S	237.562
4	G. Russell Mercedes	63		Mercedes	Mercedes	12	+0.367 1’46.357	0.219	S	237.073
5	L. Hamilton Ferrari	44		Ferrari	Ferrari	17	+0.392 1’46.382	0.025	S	237.017
6	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		Ferrari	Ferrari	17	+0.760 1’46.750	0.368	S	236.200
7	O. Piastri McLaren	81		McLaren	Mercedes	20	+0.795 1’46.785	0.035	S	236.123
8	N. Hulkenberg Audi	27		Audi	Audi	20	+0.934 1’46.924	0.139	S	235.816
9	G. Bortoleto Audi	5		Audi	Audi	18	+1.059 1’47.049	0.125	S	235.540
10	I. Hadjar Red Bull Racing	6		Red Bull	Red Bull	19	+1.106 1’47.096	0.047	M	235.437
11	A. Lindblad Racing Bulls	41		RB	Red Bull	23	+1.186 1’47.176	0.080	S	235.261
12	L. Lawson Racing Bulls	30		RB	Red Bull	23	+1.700 1’47.690	0.514	S	234.138
13	F. Colapinto Alpine	43		Alpine	Mercedes	20	+1.914 1’47.904	0.214	S	233.674
14	O. Bearman Haas F1 Team	87		Haas	Ferrari	23	+1.930 1’47.920	0.016	S	233.639
15	P. Gasly Alpine	10		Alpine	Mercedes	21	+1.959 1’47.949	0.029	S	233.576
16	A. Albon Williams	23		Williams	Mercedes	19	+2.000 1’47.990	0.041	S	233.488
17	V. Bottas Cadillac F1 Team	77		Cadillac	Ferrari	22	+2.654 1’48.644	0.654	S	232.082
18	C. Sainz Williams	55		Williams	Mercedes	20	+2.702 1’48.692	0.048	S	231.980
19	E. Ocon Haas F1 Team	31		Haas	Ferrari	22	+2.740 1’48.730	0.038	S	231.899
20	S. Perez Cadillac F1 Team	11		Cadillac	Ferrari	21	+3.000 1’48.990	0.260	S	231.345
21	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		Aston Martin	Honda	17	+4.165 1’50.155	1.165	S	228.899
22	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		Aston Martin	Honda	15	+4.641 1’50.631	0.476	S	227.914

We want your opinion!

– The Motorsport.com Team