Kimi Raikkonen continued his strong pace this weekend by leading Practice 3 at the Belgian Grand Prix. The Finn was followed by his teammate Sebastian Vettel who just topped title rival Lewis Hamilton by a 0.001s difference as the two manufacturers continue their ongoing battle.
Raikkonen, who will be retained by Ferrari for 2018 it was announced earlier this week, has been leading up to his reputation as a specialist around Spa-Francorchamps by leading two of the three practice sessions and finishing posted a new lap record on Saturday morning with a 1:43.916s on the Ultrasoft tyres.
As for Vettel, he was able to recover after a slow start for his weekend finishing second but the Scuderia will have to be careful of the additional power modes Mercedes will unleash in qualifying.
Max Verstappen was able to grab fourth for Red Bull, albeit almost a second off the top three but did finish ahead of a struggling Valtteri Bottas as the second Mercedes driver had problems under braking on his fastest lap.
Daniel Ricciardo followed the Finn closely finishing sixth just under a tenth of a second off Bottas but his best time was compromised by a yellow flag on his first lap which meant his tyres lose some of their grip.
Jolyon Palmer was the 'best of the rest' in seventh as Renault continued their strong form this weekend. Four different midfield teams filled positions 7-10 as Sergio Perez was able to improve from a difficult Friday finishing eighth ahead of the two Spaniards, Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso, who completed the top 10.
Nico Hulkenberg had to settle for 11th ahead of Force India’s Esteban Ocon, who is most likely to move up once the action gets serious in qualifying. Romain Grosjean had yet more brake issues but was 13th in the Haas with local boy Stoffel Vandoorne 14th, as the Belgian concentrated on long runs with a 65-place grid penalty to come. The mid-grid battle seems intense with positions 7 till 14 all within one second.
The midfield battle looks intense with seventh-to-17th covered by 1.2 seconds but struggling more than most was the Williams duo with Lance Stroll and Felipe Massa 15th and 16th respectively as Massa returned to the track for the first time since his crash in the first 15 minutes of practice on Friday morning.
Kevin Magnussen followed in 17th as Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat session was cut short by a likely engine issue as he stopped on the Kemmel Straight, he finishing 18th as a result. The Sauber duo completed the grid as Pascal Wehrlein finished just 0.004s ahead of teammate Marcus Ericsson, despite the Swede completing just six laps due to a car problem.
Several intense battles seemed to be upon heading into the qualifying and with times still expected to drop even more who will secure pole position and how will the grid shape up?