Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Spa-Francorchamps, 2019

Ferrari complete practice clean sweep as Hamilton crashes

2019 Belgian Grand Prix third practice

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Ferrari filled the top two places for the third session in a row during final practice for the Belgian Grand Prix.

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The closest Mercedes was almost half a second slower than pace-setter Charles Leclerc. And in a further setback for the world champions, points leader Lewis Hamilton crashed his car heavily at Fagnes.

Hamilton’s W10 snapped sideways as he turn into the high-speed right-left flick. He tried to gather the car up in the asphalt run off but ran out of room and smacked the barrier with his front left, hard enough to leave the right-rear wheel sticking up in the air.

Hamilton was unhurt, and didn’t have to visit the Medical Centre after climbing from the wreck. But Mercedes have a lot of work to do to ensure he will be able to run in this afternoon’s qualifying session.

Practice was red-flagged for 16 of the 60 minutes while Hamilton’s car was removed from the barrier. Once it began Leclerc pressed on with his programme, setting a best time of 1’44.206, a few hundredths of a second slower than his best effort from yesterday.

Sebastian Vettel as almost as far behind his team mate as Bottas was. He consistently lost several tenths to Leclerc in the middle sector of the lap. Bottas was quicker still there, but the Mercedes lost too much time on the straights.

Daniel Ricciardo took an unexpected fourth place for Renault, despite the team swapping the news ‘Spec C’ engines out of both cars in favour of the older units. Ricciardo pushed Max Verstappen down to fifth, the Red Bull driver running a very slim rear wing but displeased at being held up in traffic. Albon, who has a grid penalty, did not set a representative time.

Sergio Perez again signalled Racing Point’s potential with the sixth-fastest time, though his team mate placed among the bottom five. The Alfa Romeo pair and Pierre Gasly’s Toro Rosso completed the top 10.

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Pos. No. Driver Car Best lap Gap Laps
1 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1’44.206 9
2 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’44.657 0.451 12
3 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1’44.703 0.497 11
4 3 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1’44.974 0.768 10
5 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda 1’45.312 1.106 11
6 11 Sergio Perez Racing Point-Mercedes 1’45.521 1.315 12
7 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’45.566 1.360 4
8 7 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1’45.659 1.453 13
9 99 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1’45.688 1.482 13
10 10 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso-Honda 1’45.752 1.546 15
11 8 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1’45.806 1.600 15
12 27 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1’45.855 1.649 11
13 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 1’46.004 1.798 15
14 55 Carlos Sainz Jnr McLaren-Renault 1’46.017 1.811 14
15 4 Lando Norris McLaren-Renault 1’46.270 2.064 13
16 18 Lance Stroll Racing Point-Mercedes 1’46.379 2.173 11
17 26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Honda 1’46.642 2.436 13
18 63 George Russell Williams-Mercedes 1’47.858 3.652 14
19 88 Robert Kubica Williams-Mercedes 1’48.350 4.144 14
20 23 Alexander Albon Red Bull-Honda 1’50.681 6.475 14

Third practice visual gaps

Charles Leclerc – 1’44.206

+0.451 Sebastian Vettel – 1’44.657

+0.497 Valtteri Bottas – 1’44.703

+0.768 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’44.974

+1.106 Max Verstappen – 1’45.312

+1.315 Sergio Perez – 1’45.521

+1.360 Lewis Hamilton – 1’45.566

+1.453 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’45.659

+1.482 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’45.688

+1.546 Pierre Gasly – 1’45.752

+1.600 Romain Grosjean – 1’45.806

+1.649 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’45.855

+1.798 Kevin Magnussen – 1’46.004

+1.811 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’46.017

+2.064 Lando Norris – 1’46.270

+2.173 Lance Stroll – 1’46.379

+2.436 Daniil Kvyat – 1’46.642

+3.652 George Russell – 1’47.858

+4.144 Robert Kubica – 1’48.350

+6.475 Alexander Albon – 1’50.681

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

Pos Driver Car FP1 FP2 FP3 Fri/Sat diff Total laps
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1’44.788 1’44.123 1’44.206 +0.083 57
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’44.574 1’44.753 1’44.657 +0.083 62
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1’45.882 1’44.969 1’44.703 -0.266 64
4 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1’46.426 1’45.735 1’44.974 -0.761 59
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’45.973 1’45.015 1’45.566 +0.551 46
6 Sergio Perez Racing Point-Mercedes 1’46.433 1’45.117 1’45.521 +0.404 59
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda 1’45.507 1’45.394 1’45.312 -0.082 49
8 Alexander Albon Red Bull-Honda 1’45.584 1’45.771 1’50.681 +5.097 54
9 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1’47.024 1’45.708 1’45.659 -0.049 58
10 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1’47.333 1’46.328 1’45.688 -0.64 59
11 Lance Stroll Racing Point-Mercedes 1’46.198 1’45.732 1’46.379 +0.647 48
12 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso-Honda 1’47.968 1’46.374 1’45.752 -0.622 69
13 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1’47.176 1’46.120 1’45.806 -0.314 54
14 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1’46.669 1’46.209 1’45.855 -0.354 60
15 Carlos Sainz Jnr McLaren-Renault 1’46.557 1’45.999 1’46.017 +0.018 62
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 1’47.488 1’46.399 1’46.004 -0.395 57
17 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Honda 1’47.636 1’46.214 1’46.642 +0.428 57
18 Lando Norris McLaren-Renault 1’46.670 1’46.258 1’46.270 +0.012 61
19 George Russell Williams-Mercedes 1’47.887 1’47.858 -0.029 44
20 Robert Kubica Williams-Mercedes 1’48.966 1’48.331 1’48.350 +0.019 70

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2019 Belgian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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11 comments on “Ferrari complete practice clean sweep as Hamilton crashes”

  1. Chaitanya
    31st August 2019, 12:18

    Still .5 sec between two teams. Quite a big gap to close up for Mercs and with probably 1 car out of action for qualifying.

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      Scary Terry (@hatebreeder)
      31st August 2019, 12:27

      Crash did look like he drove head first into the wall to save important bits. Maybe he’ll be back.

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      Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
      31st August 2019, 12:56

      Don’t know about that, it has been a while since I’ve seen such an odd fp table, generally times improve by .8 to 1s each fp, not this weekend.

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    iCarbs (@icarby)
    31st August 2019, 12:24

    Can’t get a better chance than this Ferrari, expectation is a Red podium…

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    Nitzo (@webtel)
    31st August 2019, 12:28

    So does that mean Renault drivers wont take a penalty tomorrow ? What spec did they use on Friday ?

    1. Ross
      31st August 2019, 12:45

      No they’ll still take the penalties, engines have gone into the pool for use later in the season.

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      Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
      31st August 2019, 12:49

      @webtel my question is what happened to the rule that prevented teams from pulling a 2016 lewis PU stack.

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    Nugo (@nugolo)
    31st August 2019, 13:01

    So, Gasly on a Toro Rosso has more or less the same gap to Verstappen that he had when he was on a Red Bull :|

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      Robbie (@robbie)
      31st August 2019, 13:18

      Although can’t we say Max was running at lower settings yesterday and from what it says above he was held up in traffic today. Methinks there’s more to come from Max and the gap will be more ghastly.

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    Shimks (@shimks)
    31st August 2019, 13:51

    Williams do seem to have closed the gap. Does anyone remember what the gap was at the beginning of the season?

  6. Only Facts!
    31st August 2019, 16:46

    0.75 sec ahead of Vettel… Did not see that coming!

    At today’s standarts, a fast teamate is 0.2 sec better. Make It 0.5s If he is world championship material.

    But 0.75s? I just hope Ferrari had the guts to tell Vettel not to compromise Leclerc’s race. Turn one is complicated…

Comments are closed.