Kimi Antonelli tops FP3 at the Belgian Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton crashes Ferrari

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Kimi Antonelli rounded out the final Free Practice session at the Belgian Grand Prix on top, with Lewis Hamilton suffering a crash that wrote off his Ferrari SF-26 just minutes away from the end of the session.

Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli shared the top spot in Friday afternoon’s FP1 and FP2 sessions at the Belgian Grand Prix, respectively, with Pierre Gasly’s late shunt in the latter session proving to be the only incident that unfolded at Spa-Francorchamps.

Antonelli tops FP3 at the Belgian GP with Russell 0.367s adrift in P4 🇧🇪 How alarmed should George be?

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Several drivers voiced their concerns after FP2 over the level of energy management required at such a power-sensitive circuit. Remarkably, data showed that Lance Stroll was as slow as a GT3 car due to the sheer amount of super clipping occurring on the back straight.

• READ MORE: Belgian Grand Prix 2026: How to watch, F1 race and qualifying start times, and Spa weather forecast

Kimi Antonelli rounds out Free Practice at the Belgian Grand Prix on top

As the green light appeared at the end of the pit lane, Valtteri Bottas was the first man out on track, but it was Isack Hadjar who held the top spot after the first ten minutes with an effort nearly four seconds faster than the Cadillac driver.

With track temperatures slightly cooler than FP1, Lewis Hamilton topped Verstappen’s best time from the early afternoon practice session on Friday to enter the 1:46s. The seven-time world champion set a time of 1:46.789, over five tenths quicker than Arvid Lindblad in P2.

A yellow flag was then brought out in the pit lane after Hadjar’s RB22 appeared to have stopped as he crossed the white line at the pit exit. The Frenchman reported no power over the team radio, forcing trackside marshals to push him back into Red Bull’s box.

Antonelli then made a play for his own benchmark from FP2 as he cruised his way into the 1:45s after Hadjar’s incident. It was only the young Italian’s first effort on the red-walled soft compound tyres, and it put nearly eight-tenths between himself and Hamilton.

Red Bull wasted no time in getting Hadjar back on track, and a close call between the 21-year-old and Aston Martin’s Stroll at turn eight saw Hadjar unleash fury on the Canadian. The Red Bull driver then reported high temperatures on his RB22, which scuppered one of his flying laps, while Mercedes engineers took a closer look at George Russell’s W17.

Lap times started to trickle down as the timer hit the 15-minute remaining mark. Antonelli’s benchmark of 1:45.990 remained, with Lando Norris and Verstappen only managing to come within two tenths of the Italian’s lap time.

Despite setting a relatively competitive lap time, the Dutchman was clearly not happy with his RB22, firing across a sarcastic message to the Red Bull pit wall: “The upshifts are just brilliant.” Verstappen hasn’t been happy with his gearbox for some time now.

Charles Leclerc then offered some insight into Ferrari’s possible plans for qualifying, telling his race engineer: “I need a slipstream, guys. Let’s prepare for qualifying.” The Monegasque driver ended the session in P6, seven-and-a-half tenths adrift from Antonelli.

At the dying embers of the session, Hamilton suffered an identical crash to Gasly’s incident in FP2 and was forced to park his Ferrari SF-25 at the exit of turn 15. His engineers now have just over two hours to repair the #44-adorned car before qualifying.

• READ MORE: Belgian Grand Prix predictions as F1 experts decide if Ferrari can beat Mercedes to the win at Spa

Full FP3 timesheets at the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix