What happened in final F1 practice at Belgian GP

Kimi Antonelli laid down a huge marker in final practice ahead of qualifying at Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix while Lewis Hamilton crashed his Ferrari into the barriers in the dying moments of the session.

In an almost carbon copy of Pierre Gasly’s incident at the Turn 13 left-hander on Friday, Hamilton ran wide through the gravel and, by his own admission, “destroyed” the rear of his Ferrari against the barriers.

Hamilton briefly continued before stopping his wrecked Ferrari on track a few corners later, giving his team a time-pressured repair job before qualifying starts two and a half hours later.

Antonelli topped FP2 on Friday and continued his strong Spa form on Saturday by setting a 1m45.990s, which was over seven tenths quicker than the next-best car at the midway point in the session.

No driver on their final qualifying runs could beat Antonelli’s benchmark with Lando Norris’s McLaren the closest, as he was in FP2, this time 0.139 seconds adrift of Antonelli.

He won’t be a threat for pole position as he has to take a 10-place grid penalty for taking a fourth battery of the season.

Max Verstappen was third quickest for Red Bull, 0.148s slower than Antonelli’s best.

Even Antonelli couldn’t beat his earlier benchmark as he had to abandon his first lap of his final run because he “didn't get the gear in”, and he then had a moment out of Les Combes on his second tour and had his laptime deleted for track limits, one that was over two tenths off his best anyway.

George Russell struggled to match the pace of his team-mate, initially over 1.2s off before he improved to being 0.367s behind Antonelli.

Before his late-session crash, Hamilton was the faster Ferrari in fifth place, 0.392s off the pace but 0.368s faster than Charles Leclerc in sixth.

Oscar Piastri was seventh for McLaren, six tenths adrift of Norris and just ahead of Audi drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, who led the midfield battle.

Isack Hadjar, who will start the Belgian GP from the back of the grid due to multiple engine component changes, rounded out the top 10 ahead of the Racing Bulls of Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson.

FP3 result

1 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 1m45.090s
2 Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.119s
3 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.148s
4 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.367s
5 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.392s
6 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.760s
7 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.795s
8 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) +0.934s
9 Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +1.059s
10 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +1.106s
11 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +1.186s
12 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +1.700s
13 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +1.914s
14 Ollie Bearman (Haas) +1.930s
15 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +1.959s
16 Alex Albon (Williams) +2.000s
17 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) +2.654s
18 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +2.702s
19 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +2.740s
20 Sergio Perez (Cadillac) +3.000s
21 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +4.165s
22 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +4.641s