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Open session ticker now!
In ten minutes, qualifying begins in Spa and we are moving the action back to our session ticker for now. So there is a short break here, after the end of qualifying it will continue here with the voices for Saturday.
And if you want to know how you can watch the Belgium race live this weekend, you can find out here!
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Brundle: Antonelli is the favorite
He is probably not the only one who sees it that way, but expert Martin Brundle explains on Sky before qualifying: “Antonelli has a lot of confidence. He likes the balance of the car, and that gives him confidence.”
“He seems to be the favorite, but at the end of the last practice there was not much between the drivers,” says Brundle. But we have already heard from Toto Wolff that Antonelli still had room for improvement.
Hamilton car ready
The colleagues from Sky report that Lewis Hamilton can participate in qualifying shortly. Ferrari replaced the suspension, the floor, and the rear wing after the crash in FP3.
In addition, Hamilton also received a new gearbox as a precaution. The car is now ready for use again, it is said.
Alonso also with grid penalty
Small side note: We already knew that Norris, Hadjar, and Stroll have grid penalties this weekend. Now Fernando Alonso has also been added.
The Spaniard also received new engine parts and, like Hadjar, must start at the back of the grid tomorrow. Norris and Stroll each drop ten places.
Formula 2: Win for Mercedes driver
Formula 1 qualifying is coming up, but before that, Formula 2 was just on track. There, Mercedes development driver Joshua Dürksen won the sprint race.
This ended the winning streak of Red Bull’s Nikola Tsolov, who had previously won three Formula 2 races in a row. This time he finished “only” fourth. Oliver Goethe also scored a point in P8.
Still room for improvement at Mercedes
Kimi Antonelli goes into qualifying as the favorite after the practice sessions. And according to Toto Wolff on Sky, he could have been further ahead in FP3. Because the Italian could not complete his second fast lap earlier.
“We heard he couldn’t engage first gear when braking into turn 1 and had to abort the lap,” says Wolff, who explains: “I think he just pushed too hard because he couldn’t get the gears in at the entrance.”
Otherwise, his lead would probably have been even greater. There is also room for improvement for teammate George Russell. There was “a small energy error” in FP3, Wolff reveals.
Otherwise, Russell’s time would have been “much better,” the team boss is sure.
Hamilton crash
The record world champion went off at the end of FP3. His crash was almost a copy of the accident Pierre Gasly had yesterday at exactly the same spot.
Time is now pressing at Ferrari because qualifying in Spa starts at 16:00 and the car must first be repaired.
Here is the accident again in video:
FP3 overview
Report
Result
Photos: F1: Belgian Grand Prix (Spa) 2026
Open session ticker now!
In ten minutes, the third and final practice in Spa begins. We are moving the action back to our session ticker for now. So there is a short break here, after the end of the practice it will continue here as usual.
And if you want to know how you can watch Formula 1 live at the Belgium weekend, you can find out here!
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Comeback possible
Because we already talked about grid penalties this weekend: In Spa it is quite possible to win a race even from outside the top 10. The traditional track appears twice in this photo series:
Photo series: The greatest comebacks in Formula 1 history
Formula 3: Crash of championship leaders
There is a lot going on in Formula 3 this weekend! Yesterday there was already chaos in qualifying, and in the sprint race just now there was also a collision between the two championship leaders Ugo Ugochukwu and Audi junior Freddie Slater.
In the end, Jin Nakamura took the win. It was the first triumph in Formula 3 for the Japanese driver.
Grid penalties
As a reminder regarding qualifying in the afternoon: We already know that Lando Norris, Isack Hadjar, and Lance Stroll will receive grid penalties tomorrow because they are using new engine parts this weekend.
Norris must drop ten places tomorrow, Hadjar even has to start from the back of the grid. For the Red Bull driver, qualifying later therefore practically does not matter.
Bottas: Huge differences due to battery
Under the new Formula 1 regulations, according to Valtteri Bottas, the correct use of the battery is massively important in Spa. “It is different from anything we have experienced so far,” reports the Cadillac driver.
About the deployment, he says it can “make a big difference,” because: “In one sector you can easily gain or lose more than half a second. That is quite a lot.”
So a driver could be very fast in the first sector, for example – but lose the time gained on the rest of the lap because the battery runs out.
Audi: Spa does not suit us
Audi finally scored points again recently in Silverstone, but it is likely to be difficult to repeat that in Spa. Allan McNish reveals: “The characteristics of this race track do not necessarily suit us as well as some of the other tracks we have driven on recently.”
“From this perspective, we try to ensure that we get the maximum out of the car and that the drivers can also get the maximum out of it. Because here you need a lot of confidence,” explains McNish.
“I think we have to be realistic here and realize that it could be a bit more difficult than in Silverstone, Austria, and Monaco,” says the race director. Yesterday it was only P13 and P17 for Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hülkenberg.
50 years ago today …
… Niki Lauda won the 1976 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch. Although that is not quite true, because actually Lauda’s title rival James Hunt was the first driver to cross the finish line back then.
Lauda was only awarded the victory retroactively months later. You can read more about it here and in this photo series:
Photo series: Controversial: Ten race winners at the green table
Williams: Car “marginally” better in Spa
P15 and P16 yesterday for Williams. So it does not look like points again. Alexander Albon reports: “The car feels marginally better this weekend compared to Silverstone. So it is a step in the right direction.”
But this step is probably not big enough yet. “We still have a long way to go to the midfield,” Albon knows. Today it is therefore “mainly about making the best of what is available to us.”
Teammate Carlos Sainz speaks of a mixed Friday and explains: “In the first practice there was a problem with my car, so the session was not representative because we could not carry out the desired setup work.”
“In the second practice we made good progress and brought the car into a better window, although I picked up some damage somewhere and it was not a smooth session,” says Sainz.
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