Kimi Antonelli finished fastest in free practice three ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris at the Belgian Grand Prix, while Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton crashed late in the session.
Antonelli continued his good form from Friday to finish just over a tenth faster than Norris in the final hour-long session of practice, while Ferrari face a time trial to repair Hamilton’s car ahead of qualifying later on Saturday.
Despite the fact that at 12:30 local time the light at the end of the pit lane turned green, drivers and teams were in no hurry to move onto the track, since only by the 20-minute mark most of the field was in sunny and dry weather.
Hamilton became the first of the leading runners to record a time, leaving the Ferrari driver fastest at 1m 47.436s on the soft Pirelli tire, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri only a few minutes slower.
Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad continued to impress as the rookie briefly climbed to the top of the leaderboard before Hamilton asserted himself as fastest driver with 1m 46.789sec – but Antonelli, Russell and Verstappen were yet to take to the track.
Verstappen’s opening salvo put him in second, four tenths behind Hamilton, but almost 25 minutes passed before the Mercedes duo emerged as the team sought to complete the qualifying simulation in better conditions.
Antonelli set the fastest time with 1m45.990sec, eight-tenths ahead of Hamilton, but Russell could only drive P4, 1.2sec behind his teammate and complaining of a lack of straight-line speed, losing six-tenths in the first sector alone.
Also facing problems was Isak Hajjar, the Red Bull driver who will serve a grid penalty this weekend for new power unit components, which stopped on the pit exit before being returned to the garage.
Back on track, Hajjar nearly collided with the back of Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin at turn eight, getting stuck on the exit lap before aborting the next time, declaring that “nothing is ready, everything is too cold.”
Russell also soon returned for a second attempt, and although he improved in the first sector, he was slower in the remaining two sectors and was still one second behind Antonelli.
Verstappen also improved his performance in the final 15 minutes, moving up to second position and two tenths behind Antonelli despite a wheel sinking into the gravel exiting Turn 9.
The times continued to improve as Russell moved four tenths clear of his teammate, but was quickly demoted to P4 as Norris was ahead of both the Briton and Verstappen.
Antonelli had to abort his second lap on the fly after running past La Source, reporting “I didn’t put it in gear” before racing again into the final 10 minutes and failing to improve after a big slide through the Les Combes chicane.
He left the Italian with 1m 45.990sec as the fastest time and less than two tenths ahead of Norris, followed by Verstappen and Russell.
Hamilton was fifth but the seven-time world champion crashed on his final lap in an incident similar to Pierre Gasly’s crash in second practice.
The Briton lost his rear end on a left-hander at Turn 13, spun into the gravel and glanced at the barrier before stopping his damaged Ferrari on the road.
Teammate Charles Leclerc was sixth, Piastri led the Audis of Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, and Hadjar finished 10th.
The Frenchman was followed by the two Racing Bulls of Lindblad and Liam Lawson, while Ollie Bierman (Haas) split the Alpines of Franco Colapinto and Gasly.
Alex Albon (Williams) was 16th, followed by Valtteri Bottas’ Cadillac and Carlos Sainz’s second Williams, who is under investigation for a yellow flag violation.
The order was completed by Esteban Ocon (Haas), Sergio Perez (Cadillac) and the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll ahead of today’s qualifying.