Verstappen a second clear in wet Belgian GP final practice
Heavy rain overnight and on Saturday morning left the Spa-Francorchamps circuit soaked and resulted in all the drivers completing their final hour of practice running on Pirelli’s intermediate tyres in changeable and challenging conditions.
Verstappen set the pace with a 1m56.924s to end FP3 0.947s faster than Perez, while championship leader Lewis Hamilton was over a second off his main title rival’s benchmark in third.
Lando Norris was fourth for McLaren and took the surprising decision to attempt a lap on slick tyres in the closing moments of the session despite track conditions being nowhere near ready for the crossover from wets to dries.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was nearly two seconds down in fifth, ahead of Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly and Sebastian Vettel.
George Russell put his Williams inside the top 10 with a lap good enough for P9, a tenth clear of Fernando Alonso’s Alpine.
Birthday boy Valtteri Bottas was only 11th in the final FP3 order, some 1.6s down on his Mercedes teammate.
Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen propped up the timesheets and was restricted to just three laps of running before he reported suffering a brake failure.
Rain is forecast to continue throughout the rest of the day at Spa and is likely to affect qualifying, which takes place at 1500 local time (1400 BST).
Results from final practice at the 2021 F1 Belgian Grand Prix.
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