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Kimi Antonelli topped the final practice session for the 2026 FIA Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix, leading Lando Norris and Max Verstappen in a closely contested hour at Spa-Francorchamps.<\/p>\n
The Mercedes driver produced a best lap of 1:45.990 on his first set of soft tyres, a time that remained unbeaten despite a late round of qualifying simulations. Norris finished 0.139s adrift for McLaren, with Verstappen a further 0.009s back in third for Red Bull.<\/p>\n
Franco Colapinto and Isack Hadjar got the session underway, with the pair initially using Medium compound tyres, while several rivals headed out on Softs. Pierre Gasly also returned to action after Alpine completed extensive overnight repairs following his FP2 accident.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton set the early benchmark for Ferrari, trading fastest times with Arvid Lindblad before lowering the pace to 1:46.789. Verstappen moved into second on his opening soft-tyre run, while Charles Leclerc\u2019s first effort left him off Hamilton\u2019s pace.<\/p>\n
The order changed decisively when Antonelli posted his lap of 1:45.990 lap. At that stage he held an advantage of 0.799 over Hamilton and 0.847 over Verstappen, with Leclerc and George Russell also inside the top five.<\/p>\n
Hadjar\u2019s session was briefly interrupted when he stopped at the pit exit and reported a loss of power. The Red Bull driver was recovered and later returned on soft tyres, eventually placing 10th with a 1:47.096 lap.<\/p>\n
In the closing phase, Verstappen improved to 1:46.138, helped by a strong final sector, before Russell moved into third. Norris then split Antonelli and Verstappen with a 1:46.129 effort, while Oscar Piastri placed seventh after recovering from the hydraulic issue that had limited his running on Friday.<\/p>\n
Antonelli was unable to improve on fresh tyres after aborting one lap because of a missed gear and losing time with a scrappy moment at Les Combes. Leclerc also had two laps disrupted by traffic before finally setting a 1:46.750 to take sixth.<\/p>\n
The session ended with drama for Hamilton, who lost control at Turn 13 and clipped the tyre barrier, damaging the Ferrari in an incident similar to Gasly\u2019s crash at the same corner in FP2. Hamilton still retained fifth place, behind Russell and ahead of Leclerc.<\/p>\n
Audi completed the top 10 with Nico H\u00fclkenberg eighth and Gabriel Bortoleto ninth. Hadjar followed in 10th, ahead of Lindblad, Liam Lawson and Colapinto.<\/p>\n
2026 FIA Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix \u2013 Free Practice 3
1 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:45.990 13 237.894
2 Lando Norris McLaren\/Mercedes 1:46.129 0.139 21 237.582
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull\/Red Bull Ford 1:46.138 0.148 14 237.562
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:46.357 0.367 12 237.073
5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:46.382 0.392 17 237.017
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:46.750 0.760 17 236.200
7 Oscar Piastri McLaren\/Mercedes 1:46.785 0.795 20 236.123
8 Nico H\u00fclkenberg Audi 1:46.924 0.934 20 235.816
9 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:47.049 1.059 18 235.540
10 Isack Hadjar Red Bull\/Red Bull Ford 1:47.096 1.106 19 235.437
11 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls\/Red Bull Ford 1:47.176 1.186 23 235.261
12 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls\/Red Bull Ford 1:47.690 1.700 23 234.138
13 Franco Colapinto Alpine\/Mercedes 1:47.904 1.914 20 233.674
14 Oliver Bearman Haas\/Ferrari 1:47.920 1.930 23 233.639
15 Pierre Gasly Alpine\/Mercedes 1:47.949 1.959 21 233.576
16 Alexander Albon Williams\/Mercedes 1:47.990 2.000 19 233.488
17 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac\/Ferrari 1:48.644 2.654 22 232.082
18 Carlos Sainz Williams\/Mercedes 1:48.692 2.702 20 231.980
19 Esteban Ocon Haas\/Ferrari 1:48.730 2.740 22 231.899
20 Sergio P\u00e9rez Cadillac\/Ferrari 1:48.990 3.000 21 231.345
21 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin\/Honda 1:50.155 4.165 17 228.899
22 Lance Stroll Aston Martin\/Honda 1:50.631 4.641 15 227.914<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli topped the final practice session for the 2026 FIA Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix, leading Lando…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[140085,64,63,140083,2709,140082,817,140081,837,140086,813,126528,835,816,140084,64697,2076,88198,71552,824,58080,26293,140080,10587,85,128349,140076,94075,140075,140079,140078,140077],"class_list":["post-808413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-action-for-road-safety","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-circuit","tag-connectivity","tag-eprix","tag-f1","tag-fe","tag-fia","tag-fia-president","tag-formula-1","tag-formula-e","tag-formula-one","tag-formula1","tag-hill-climb","tag-historic","tag-jean-todt","tag-mobility","tag-motor-sport","tag-motorsport","tag-off-road","tag-rally","tag-rallycross","tag-road-safety","tag-sports","tag-todt","tag-touring-car","tag-wec","tag-world-endurance-championship","tag-world-rallycross","tag-world-rx","tag-wtcc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}