Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari crew face a race against time to repair his SF-26 for Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying after he crashed at the end of final practice at Spa-Francorchamps. Fifth-fastest Hamilton was on a fast lap in the closing moments when he went wide across the gravel at Turn 13 and his car's right rear had a glancing blow against the barrier, a near mirror image of Pierre Gasly's crash at the same corner on Friday. "I've destroyed the car mate," Hamilton told his race engineer over team radio before stopping on track.
Kimi Antonelli will go into Qualifying as the clear favourite for pole after topping the timesheet for the second successive session. Despite seeing his once comfortable title lead cut to 25 points, the Mercedes driver has shown supreme pace around the legendary circuit. He was a full 0.7s faster than anyone else on his first lap, 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. Qualifying takes place at 3pm Saturday with Sunday's race at 2pm, live on Sky Sports F1.
Source: Sky Sports Champions League · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing