FP3 Belgium: Red Bull closes in attack, Leclerc in the gravel!

The last free practice session ahead of qualifications which will start at 16:00 closes with the best time by Sergio Perez. The Mexican, not brilliant on Friday, waited for the FP3 to light up, marking the super time of 1:45.047, putting one tenth behind Max Verstappen. A Red Bull that, in these conditions, seems really uncatchable. Closes the podium Carlos Sainz 7 and a half tenths from Perez.

Session still with a September temperature, suspended in the final due to a contact by Charles Leclerc with barriers into turn 12 after a gravel sprint. The Monegasque, who until a few moments before had complained to the team about a flap problem, was pushing in the second sector. Immediately after the impact he was able to restart to get back on track, without any particular damage, closing the session in P7. With the qualification and the mileage list of penalties, the picture could be even more intriguing. Carlos and Checo have a great opportunity in hand to take Pole and close the front row, within the reach of many. A really intense session with problems in the ending for Hag. The German, 8th at the end of the session complained a Power Unit problem. We will see if there will be any news before the start of the qualifications!

Penalty: forward another

Verstappen, Leclerc, Ocon, Norris, Bottas and Schumacher and…Zhou. As the little song of the unicorns says "No one is missing anymore" by now. The list of riders who will have to serve a grid penalty over the weekend in Belgium continues to grow and who will be forced to start "from the rear". The news of the day, in addition to the rather obvious one of thearrival of other components for Charles Leclerc, concerns another driver who reaches 6 already penalized yesterday. Even the Chinese Alfa Romeo driver, Guanyu Zhou – 19th in FP3 – will have to serve a penalty for the replacement of the Power Unit and a new gearbox. An obligatory choice given the challenging hat-trick that will end with the Italian Grand Prix. are added, among the changes also those to the control unit and battery for Max Verstappen.

With as many as 7 drivers penalized - including some uncomfortable customers such as Leclerc and Verstappen - the one at Spa will be a "relative fund", and will force everyone into a fast-paced qualifying, as usual. The starting order of these, in fact, will be established with the qualifications. Qualifying ahead of all the penalized riders would mean starting 6 positions behind the last one. An advantage that no one – especially the two title contenders – would like to lose. An advantage also for the “others”. The last of the drivers not penalized will start 13th anyway.

Mercedes in pain

Mercedes continues to be unpredictable. The pace with the softs in FP3 didn't have the desired result, with a lot of degradation already after 6 laps. A collapse that suggests a forced strategy in the race that will lead them to discard the start with the reds but be careful, because tomorrow the temperatures will be higher and this difficulty in getting the tires up to temperature could disappear. What we are therefore facing is a scenario that we know well by now, but the podiums continue to arrive despite the difficulties of the early stages of the weekend. Because of this giving them up is a difficult exercise.

Mercedes finished FP3 sixth with Russell and twelfth with Hamilton. Compared to the Ferrari with the same load on both cars, the Brackley team differentiated the rear load: Lewis more unloaded, Russell more loaded, also testing different configurations over the weekend. All to maximize the great advantage they will have, given the absence of the 2 main rivals engaged in battle in the rear.

All times of FP3