Kimi Antonelli delivered a commanding performance in final practice at the Belgian Grand Prix, setting the fastest time of the session for Mercedes at Spa-Francorchamps.
The young Italian’s benchmark of 1m45.990s came during his opening soft-tyre run in the first 30 minutes and proved impossible for any rival to beat throughout the remainder of the session.
Lewis Hamilton endured a torrid end to FP3, crashing his Ferrari after carrying too much speed through the second part of Les Fagnes, mirroring Pierre Gasly’s accident from FP2 the previous day.
Hamilton clipped the wall with his rear-right tyre, ripping the wheel out of alignment and leaving Ferrari with a significant repair job to complete ahead of qualifying.
The extent of damage to Hamilton’s gearbox remains a concern, with the Scuderia facing a race against time to assess and fix the car before the session that matters most.
The opening ten minutes of FP3 saw limited running due to the restricted quantity of tyres available, before the Spa circuit gradually sprung to life as teams committed to their soft-tyre efforts.
Hamilton was the first driver to dip below the 1m47s barrier, posting a 1m46.789s, but Antonelli immediately eclipsed that with his stunning 1m45.990s, sitting eight tenths clear of the Ferrari driver.
Max Verstappen twice attempted to challenge Antonelli’s benchmark, at one point benefiting from a slipstream from Valtteri Bottas’ Cadillac in the final sector, but still fell 0.148s short of the Mercedes rookie’s time.
Lando Norris ultimately slotted into second place, just 0.009s quicker than Verstappen in third, having spent much of the session on a long medium-tyre run before switching to softs late on.
Antonelli’s own second soft-tyre effort yielded no improvement, with his first run aborted after going wide at La Source, attributed to his inability to engage the final gear early enough to exploit engine braking into the corner.
George Russell took fourth place for Mercedes, having backed off on a second soft run after encountering Sergio Perez through Raidillon, while Hamilton classified fifth despite his crash ending the session early.
Charles Leclerc came home sixth after finding traffic of his own, this time a slow Gasly at Turn 9 disrupting one of his attempts, before recovering to sixth on his follow-up run.
Oscar Piastri was seventh overall, half a second adrift of his McLaren team-mate Norris, while both Audi drivers impressed by making the top ten with Nico Hulkenberg eighth and Gabriel Bortoleto ninth.
Isack Hadjar rounded out the top ten for Red Bull Racing despite suffering a stall in the pitlane mid-session, with his mechanics recovering the car to allow him to continue running.
Hadjar reported difficulties generating tyre temperature, particularly at the front axle, and ended the session just 0.08s clear of Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad in 11th, with Liam Lawson 12th.