Belgian Grand Prix – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has set the pace at a damp final practice ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman set a time of 1:56.924 which was nearly a second faster than his teammate Sergio Perez in the sister Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton set the third fastest time in his Mercedes, just a tenth off Perez’s time.
The track was wet at the start of the session and, with a low mist and cloud clinging around the Ardennes circuit, it didn’t really clear. The drivers initially came out on their opening runs on a mix of intermediate and wet tyres kicking up plumes of spray into the grey Belgium sky.
At the mid-point, Verstappen was nearly a second clear of his teammate Perez with Hamilton just a tenth further behind. A dry line did start to appear, but the threat of more rain lingered limiting any dry running and ensuring the drivers stayed on the intermediate compound for the rest of the session. The times didn’t really improve as more rain arrived in the second half of the session.
Click here to view the full results from FP3
Lando Norris set the fourth fastest time for McLaren, ahead of previous race winner Esteban Ocon in the Alpine. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was in sixth ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly in seventh.
Sebastan Vettel was in eighth in the other Aston Martin with George Russell in ninth for Williams. Fernando Alonso rounded out the top ten in the Alpine
Valtteri Bottas, who has a five-place grid penalty following his incident last time out at the Hungarian Grand Prix was down in 11th place, just ahead of Nicholas Latifi in the Williams.
Daniel Ricciardo was 13th in the other McLaren whilst Carlos Sainz was down in 14th for Ferrari. Mick Schumacher set the 15th fastest time in his Haas ahead of Charles Leclerc in the other Ferrari.
AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda set the 17th fastest time ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi in the Alfa Romeo. Nikita Mazepine was down in 19th for Haas whilst Kimi Raikkonnen set the 20th fastest time The Finn was unable to run more than three laps due to brake issues on his Alfa Romeo.
