Belgian Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton ‘destroys’ Ferrari as Antonelli tops FP3

Kimi Antonelli looked unstoppable in Saturday’s final practice for the Belgian Grand Prix, only to give his rivals a look-in with a small mistake on his second run.

One of those rivals was Lewis Hamilton, who was on a final flying lap when he ran wide into the Fagnes chicane, hit the barrier and “destroyed the car”.

Kimi Antonelli tops Belgian Grand Prix FP3 despite late gear issues

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Saturday’s final practice, the last hour for teams to decide on the perfect set-up for qualifying and the race, got underway under cloudy skies, but there was no threat of rain.

The pit lane light went green at 12:30pm local time, but there were no immediate takers. Williams, in fact, were still working on Carlos Sainz’s car for some last-minute checks.

Valtteri Bottas and Franco Colapinto were the first out of the pits, four minutes into the session. As the field trickled out, Sergio Perez reported “hesitations” with his Cadillac’s Ferrari power unit.

Bottas posted a 1:52.2 as the opening gambit, with Lewis Hamilton P1 with a 1:47.4 after the opening 15 minutes.

Eight of the drivers, including the Mercedes pairing of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, with the latter showing no sign of wanting to get out on track, had yet to set times. Max Verstappen was also in no hurry to leave the Red Bull garage.

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Arvid Lindblad replaced Hamilton in P1, but it was short-lived as the Ferrari driver upped his pace to a 1:46.7. Oscar Piastri was third, ahead of Isack Hadjar who reported, “Definitely a wind change because Turn 1 is so open.”

Lando Norris had a moment at Stavelot that kicked up a bit of gravel, while Charles Leclerc, who drove through it, could only manage seventh place. The British GP winner was a full second down on Hamilton. He upped his pace, but was still seven-tenths behind Hamilton.

Hadjar ran into trouble on his way out of the pits. Having crossed the line and begun his run down the pit exit, he came to a stop. “No power,” he reported.

The marshals managed to push his RB22 back into the pit lane with his Red Bull mechanics taking over to get it into the garage, with one marshal running ahead with a yellow flag to warn anyone coming into the pits.

Back on track, Hamilton led the way by 0.378s ahead of Verstappen, with Russell, finally out on track, up to third. And then came Antonelli… P1 with a 1:45.9. He returned to the pits after his three-lap run.

Hadjar had a scary moment with Lance Stroll as the Red Bull driver had to dive around the Aston Martin. Hadjar also wasn’t happy with his car, telling the team “nothing is ready” as it is all “too cold”.

Swapping to new soft tyres, Russell closed the gap to Antonelli to four-tenths to move into third place. Verstappen separated the Mercedes teammates, with a sarcastic Verstappen telling Red Bull that his upshifts were “brilliant”.

Antonelli left the pits on new softs but aborted his first lap as he made a mistake at the hairpin, reporting he “could not get the gears”. Norris moved up to second place, a tenth down on Antonelli.

Starting a second flying lap, Antonelli was down on his previous best with his time deleted for track limits. Leclerc twice aborted his flying laps due to traffic.

Yellow flag! Hamilton lost it at the entry to the Farage chicane, clipped the barrier as Pierre Gasly did in FP2, and “destroyed the car”.

The session ended under yellows with Antonelli fastest of all ahead of Norris and Verstappen.

Belgian Grand Prix: Free Practice 3 Times

1 Kimi Antonelli 1:45.990
2 Lando Norris 1:46.129
3 Max Verstappen 1:46.138
4 George Russell 1:46.357
5 Oscar Piastri 1:46.785
6 Lewis Hamilton 1:46.789
7 Nico Hulkenberg 1:46.924
8 Isack Hadjar 1:47.096
9 Charles Leclerc 1:47.122
10 Arvid Lindblad 1:47.176

The full results from FP3 at the Belgian Grand Prix

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