Belgium – Free Practice 3: Leclerc the fastest before qualifying, Hamilton crashes into the wall

With 32°C in the air and 34°C on the track, the conditions are ideal this Saturday afternoon for the last practice session on the Spa circuit. At the green light, Norris, Räikkönen, Magnussen, and Gasly are the first to take to the track. In Lewis Hamilton’s garage, the Mercedes is still on the stands and the mechanics are busy working on the engine.

As a reminder, Racing Point encountered issues yesterday in Free Practice 2 with major concerns for Lance Stroll and a fire outbreak for Sergio Pérez. The damage to the Mexican’s car forced a return to the Mercedes engine specification 2 for the rest of the weekend.

At the wheel of the Williams, Robert Kubica is the first to chase the clock and concludes with an initial time of 1:50.877, far from the times of the previous day. Charles Leclerc truly opens hostilities with a 1:44.789, six-tenths off the best time from yesterday afternoon. Less fast in the first sector, Sebastian Vettel manages to achieve a better time by outperforming Leclerc in sectors 2 and 3. The German records a 1:44.657.

Mid-session, the hierarchy is gently establishing itself with the recording of a timed lap for the entire field. Lewis Hamilton is almost the last to complete a flying lap, the Briton moves into fourth place behind Bottas and nine-tenths off Vettel’s time. Only Daniel Ricciardo was missing, and the Australian places his Renault in sixth place.

A mid-session ranking update: Vettel, Leclerc, Bottas, Hamilton, Pérez, Ricciardo, Räikkönen, Stroll, Verstappen, Hülkenberg, Grosjean, Gasly, Kvyat, Giovinnazi, Magnussen, Sainz, Norris, Russell, Kubica, Albon.

A yellow flag is waved in sector 2 and it’s Lewis Hamilton who is stuck in the tire wall at the entrance to Fagnes. In the replay, we see him entering the corner delicately, and despite several corrections, he couldn’t avoid the contact. The driver is okay, but the concern will now be whether Mercedes can get the car back in shape for the qualifiers in 2 hours and 30 minutes.

A reminder that even the best in the business can make mistakes… 😮💥

Working flat-out to get Lewis’ W10 fixed it time for #BelgianGP Quali! 💪

pic.twitter.com/049Uju9zo5

— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) August 31, 2019

Once the car is cleared and the wall repaired, the session resumes for 14 short minutes. Charles Leclerc returns to the top of the rankings with a 1:44.206, pushing his teammate back by four-tenths. Valtteri Bottas gets within five-tenths and remains 3rd.

The strong performance is credited to Daniel Ricciardo, who managed to place the Renault in 4th position ahead of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. As for the French drivers, Pierre Gasly bounced back with the tenth-fastest time, and Romain Grosjean was not far behind him with the eleventh-fastest time of the session.

The ranking of Free Practice 3 at the end of the session: