Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari crew face a race against time to repair his car for Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying after he crashed at the end of final practice, in a session topped again by Mercedes’ title-leading Kimi Antonelli
Fifth-fastest Hamilton was on a quick lap in the closing moments of the final session before Qualifying at 3pm this afternoon when he went wide across the gravel at Turn 13 and his car’s right rear wheel had a glancing blow against the barrier
It was a near mirror image of Pierre Gasly’s crash at the same corner on Friday for Alpine
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“I’ve destroyed the car mate,” said Hamilton to his race engineer over team radio
With sufficient damage to the SF-26’s right rear preventing the Briton from driving it back to the pit lane, Hamilton soon stopped on track and was then seen inspecting the damage himself once climbing out of the cockpit
Antonelli will go into Qualifying as the clear favourite for pole position after he topped the timesheet for the second second running at a sun-kissed Spa
Despite seeing his once comfortable title lead cut to 25 points over recent events, Antonelli has continued to show supreme pace relative to his rivals and that has hitherto continued around one of F1’s most legendary and challenging circuits
He was immediately a full 0.7s faster than anyone else on his first lap of the session mid-way through the hour, although his final gap over second-placed Lando Norris and third-placed Max Verstappen finished at just 0.1s after Antonelli did not improve on the final soft-tyre runs
George Russell finished 0.3s back on his Mercedes team-mate in fourth ahead of the Ferrari pair of Hamilton and Charles Leclerc
Hamilton has had a clear pace edge on British GP victor Leclerc so far this weekend and was nearly 0.4s faster than his team-mate in final practice
Norris was the lead McLaren driver in second place but he will carry a 10-place grid penalty into Qualifying owing to engine changes. His team-mate Oscar Piastri will therefore effectively carry the Woking team’s challenge, but the Australian finished final practice almost 0.8s off the pace in seventh place
Audi enjoyed a promising session as Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto finished eighth and ninth respectively ahead of Isack Hadjar in the second Red Bull
Hadjar already knows he will start Sunday’s race from the back of the grid owing to penalties for multiple changes of power-unit parts, with the Frenchman’s P3 session briefly interrupted by an issue which stopped his RB22 in the pit lane after leaving the garage
Sky Sports F1’s Belgian GP schedule
Saturday July 181.15pm: F2 Sprint2.15pm: Belgian GP Qualifying build-up*3pm: BELGIAN GP QUALIFYING*
Sunday July 197.30am: F3 Feature Race9am: F2 Feature Race10.45am: Porsche Supercup12.30pm: Belgian GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday2pm: THE BELGIAN GRAND PRIX4pm: Belgian GP reaction: Chequered Flag
*Also on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 is at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix with Sunday’s race at 2pm (build-up from 12.30pm), live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
