Hamilton crashes out as Antonelli sets pace in final Belgium practice

Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari crew face a race against time to repair his car for Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying after he crashed at the end of final practice, in a session topped again by Mercedes' title-leading Kimi Antonelli.

​Fifth-fastest Hamilton was on a fast lap in the closing moments of the final session before Qualifying at 3pm this afternoon when he went wide across the gravel at Turn 13 and his car's right rear had a glancing blow against the barrier.

It was a near mirror image of Pierre Gasly's crash at the same corner on Friday for Alpine.

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"I've destroyed the car mate," said Hamilton to his race engineer over team radio.

"I'm sorry."

With sufficient damage to the SF-26's right rear preventing the Briton from driving it back to the pit lane, Hamilton soon stopped on track and was then seen inspecting the damage himself after climbing out of the cockpit.

Antonelli will go into Qualifying as the clear favourite for pole position after he topped the timesheet for the second successive session.

Despite seeing his once comfortable title lead cut to 25 points over recent events, Antonelli has shown supreme pace and that has hitherto continued around one of F1's most legendary circuits.

He was a full 0.7s faster than anyone else on his first lap of the session mid-way through the hour, although his final gap over second-placed Lando Norris and third-placed Max Verstapepn 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.

More to follow…

Sky Sports F1's Belgian GP schedule

Saturday July 18
1.15pm: F2 Sprint
2.15pm: Belgian GP Qualifying build-up*
3pm: BELGIAN GP QUALIFYING*

Sunday July 19
7.30am: F3 Feature Race
9am: F2 Feature Race
10.45am: Porsche Supercup
12.30pm: Belgian GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday
2pm: THE BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
4pm: Belgian GP reaction: Chequered Flag

*Also on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1 is at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix with Sunday's race at 2pm (build-up from 12.30pm), live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime