Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheet for Mercedes in final practice at the Belgian Grand Prix.
After two dry sessions on Friday, Spa-Francorchamps played a few party tricks with a pair of showers crossing the circuit during the final hour of qualifying albeit not enough to wet the track.
It would though lead to a disjointed FP3 with the important action coming in the final minutes.
Hamilton would emerge in front, posting a 1m43.255s to lead Esteban Ocon by 0.230s, as the Renault continues to blow away the competition on the straights.
Lando Norris also used the French manufacturer’s engine performance to move upto third in the McLaren.
Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen set the pace initially after the first flying laps on the soft compound tyre, but a mistake by the Finn at La Source and traffic for the Red Bull driver meant they failed to improve and dropped to fifth and sixth.
Daniel Ricciardo backed up Renault’s strong pace in seventh with the two Racing Points of Stroll and Perez eighth and 10th, either side of Carlos Sainz’s McLaren.
Outside the top 10, the story continued to be trouble for the Ferrari powered teams.
Kevin Magnussen’s car was seen back on stands at the end of FP3 hinting at more reliability issues, while only traffic issues for George Russell stopped Haas, Alfa Romeo and Ferrari filling the bottom six places.
Worse, it was the Scuderia who were the slowest team overall with Charles Leclerc 17th and Sebastian Vettel last of the 20 drivers.
Traffic did play a role in their final positions, but Q1 exits in qualifying look all but guaranteed unless it rains.
At the front though, there is signs of Mercedes starting to flex their muscles and the inevitable front row lockout does seem to be looming in a few hours time.
Full results from Practice 3 can be seen below:
