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.

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.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
116Charles LeclercFerrari1’44.2069
25Sebastian VettelFerrari1’44.6570.45112
377Valtteri BottasMercedes1’44.7030.49711
43Daniel RicciardoRenault1’44.9740.76810
533Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’45.3121.10611
611Sergio PerezRacing Point-Mercedes1’45.5211.31512
744Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’45.5661.3604
87Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’45.6591.45313
999Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’45.6881.48213
1010Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’45.7521.54615
118Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’45.8061.60015
1227Nico HulkenbergRenault1’45.8551.64911
1320Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’46.0041.79815
1455Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault1’46.0171.81114
154Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’46.2702.06413
1618Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes1’46.3792.17311
1726Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Honda1’46.6422.43613
1863George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’47.8583.65214
1988Robert KubicaWilliams-Mercedes1’48.3504.14414
2023Alexander AlbonRed Bull-Honda1’50.6816.47514

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.

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Charles LeclercFerrari1’44.7881’44.1231’44.206+0.08357
2Sebastian VettelFerrari1’44.5741’44.7531’44.657+0.08362
3Valtteri BottasMercedes1’45.8821’44.9691’44.703-0.26664
4Daniel RicciardoRenault1’46.4261’45.7351’44.974-0.76159
5Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’45.9731’45.0151’45.566+0.55146
6Sergio PerezRacing Point-Mercedes1’46.4331’45.1171’45.521+0.40459
7Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’45.5071’45.3941’45.312-0.08249
8Alexander AlbonRed Bull-Honda1’45.5841’45.7711’50.681+5.09754
9Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’47.0241’45.7081’45.659-0.04958
10Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’47.3331’46.3281’45.688-0.6459
11Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes1’46.1981’45.7321’46.379+0.64748
12Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’47.9681’46.3741’45.752-0.62269
13Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’47.1761’46.1201’45.806-0.31454
14Nico HulkenbergRenault1’46.6691’46.2091’45.855-0.35460
15Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault1’46.5571’45.9991’46.017+0.01862
16Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’47.4881’46.3991’46.004-0.39557
17Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Honda1’47.6361’46.2141’46.642+0.42857
18Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’46.6701’46.2581’46.270+0.01261
19George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’47.8871’47.858-0.02944
20Robert KubicaWilliams-Mercedes1’48.9661’48.3311’48.350+0.01970

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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. 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.

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

    2. 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.

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

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

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

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

  4. 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 :|

    1. 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.

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

  6. 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…

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