Ferrari filled the top two places for the third session in a row during final practice for the Belgian Grand Prix.
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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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
- Ferrari summon drivers to Maranello again following Interlagos crash
- Kubica: Hamilton’s sixth title special because he didn’t always have the fastest car
- Adults shouldn’t be cheering at crashes, says Ricciardo
- Norris says he thought of Hubert during Belgian GP
- 2019 Belgian Grand Prix Star Performers
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.
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.
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.
iCarbs (@icarby)
31st August 2019, 12:24
Can’t get a better chance than this Ferrari, expectation is a Red podium…
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 ?
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.
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.
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 :|
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.
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?
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…