Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Belgian GP: Kimi Raikkonen fastest for Ferrari in final practice

Kimi Raikkonen set the pace in final Belgian Grand Prix Formula 1 practice as Lewis Hamilton focused on race simulation work given he will serve a 55-place grid penalty

Raikkonen clocked a 1m47.974s for Ferrari on the super-softs late in the session to finish 0.215 seconds quicker than long-time pacesetter Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull, with Sebastian Vettel a tenth further back.

After going fastest on Friday, Max Verstappen encountered gearbox problems and sat out most of third practice in the pits, failing to get a lap time on the board.

Mercedes fitted Hamilton's car with a new engine for each of this weekend's practice sessions, which has led to substantial penalties but allowed him to build up a pool of systems to use for the rest of 2016.

With the championship leader set to start from the back of the field, or potentially the pitlane, Hamilton chose to work on longer runs on the medium and then the soft for most of the morning.

The Briton then bolted on a set of the super-softs in the closing minutes and though he set the fastest first sector, he locked up into the final chicane and ended up fifth.

That was a tenth quicker than team-mate Nico Rosberg, who finished seventh after he failed to improve on his soft time after taking the super-softs.

Valtteri Bottas was fourth quickest, half a second off the pace, with Nico Hulkenberg sixth and Felipe Massa eighth and Sergio Perez and Romain Grosjean completing the top 10.

Stewards are investigating two incidents from the session.

Pascal Wehrlein was furious with Esteban Gutierrez after the Manor driver had to take to the grass at the top of Eau Rouge and Raidillon to avoid the slower Haas.

Kevin Magnussen prompted anger from Vettel when he felt he was hampered by the slower Renault, saying on the radio: "What an idiot. Did you see that? It's free practice. It's called free practice, who gives a shit?"

Vettel was outpaced by team-mate Raikkonen through the hour, with the Finn pipping him by 0.096s as they set the early pace before Ricciardo went quicker. Then when they came back out for the final super-soft runs, Vettel did not improve while Raikkonen produced the lap that earned the top spot.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button did very little running, with the former not completing his first timed lap until the second half of the session. They finished 11th and 13th respectively.

Sauber also encountered what it described as "minor problems" with Marcus Ericsson's car but the team managed to get the Swede out in time to complete a handful of laps.

PRACTICE THREE TIMES

Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps
1 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m47.974s - 11
2 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 1m48.189s 0.215s 18
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m48.297s 0.323s 12
4 Valtteri Bottas Williams/Mercedes 1m48.504s 0.530s 17
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m48.635s 0.661s 20
6 Nico Hulkenberg Force India/Mercedes 1m48.739s 0.765s 12
7 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m48.742s 0.768s 19
8 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 1m48.783s 0.809s 21
9 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m48.915s 0.941s 12
10 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m49.272s 1.298s 16
11 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Honda 1m49.453s 1.479s 9
12 Esteban Gutierrez Haas/Ferrari 1m49.631s 1.657s 16
13 Jenson Button McLaren/Honda 1m49.665s 1.691s 10
14 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1m49.716s 1.742s 11
15 Pascal Wehrlein Manor/Mercedes 1m49.761s 1.787s 15
16 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Ferrari 1m50.023s 2.049s 9
17 Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso/Ferrari 1m50.078s 2.104s 9
18 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1m50.241s 2.267s 11
19 Felipe Nasr Sauber/Ferrari 1m50.420s 2.446s 13
20 Esteban Ocon Manor/Mercedes 1m50.693s 2.719s 18
21 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 1m51.319s 3.345s 5
- Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault - - 2

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article How Mercedes is recapturing the FRIC effect
Next article Gutierrez gets Belgian GP grid penalty for Wehrlein incident

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe