Raikkonen pips Ricciardo to top FP3 at Spa

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After complaining about struggling with tyres on Friday, Ferrari bounced back on Saturday and were looking very much on form in the morning's final free practice session at Spa-Francorchamps as Kimi Raikkonen led the way with a best lap time of 1:47.974s.

The Finn was just over two tenths quicker than Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, while Sebastian Vettel took third place ahead of the Williams of Valtteri Bottas who was fourth fastest.

It was another low-key session for Mercedes. Nico Rosberg had gone to the top early in the session on soft compound tyres, but his time was soon bettered by both Ferraris and by Ricciardo.

Rosberg's team mate Lewis Hamilton spent most the morning working on long-distance runs on medium and used soft tyres. Regardless of what happens in this afternoon's qualifying session, the Briton will start from the back of the grid tomorrow after incurring a large number of engine change penalties.

However, Hamilton was able to put in one late flying lap just before the time ran out on the 60-minute session and claimed fifth place on the timing screens just ahead of the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg, leaving Rosberg pushed down to seventh ahead of Felipe Massa, Sergio Perez and Romain Grosjean.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso finished just outside the top ten having completed just nine laps during the session. Haas' Esteban Gutierrez was 12th ahead of Jenson Button, Kevin Magnussen, Pascal Wehrlein, Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz, with Jolyon Palmer in 18th ahead of Felipe Nasr.

In his first FP3 session, Manor's new driver Esteban Ocon was 20th fastest although he was 2.7s behind Raikkonen's practice-topping time.

After topping Friday's afternoon practice there was less good fortune for local hero Max Verstappen on Saturday, as he he suffered a gearbox issue after completing only two laps and virtually all of the session, putting him on the back foot going into qualifying.

There were also problems for Sauber's Marcus Ericsson, who reported a loss of power and spent most of the session back in the garage before returning at the end of practice to finally set a time, albeit down in 21st place.

A number of drivers including Vettel, Hamilton, Perez and Ricciardo all received warnings for cutting the corner at Eau Rouge and the exit of Radillon.

An incident between Vettel and Renault's Kevin Magussen at Blanchimont will also be looked at by the stewards over the lunchtime break, as will a close encounter at Eau Rouge between Haas' Esteban Gutierrez and Manor's Pascal Wehrlein.

AS IT HAPPENED: Belgian Grand Prix - FP3

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:47.974	11
02	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:48.189	18
03	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:48.297	12
04	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:48.504	17
05	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:48.635	20
06	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:48.739	12
07	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:48.742	19
08	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:48.783	21
09	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:48.915	12
10	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:49.272	16
11	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:49.453	9
12	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:49.631	16
13	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:49.665	10
14	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:49.716	11
15	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	1:49.761	15
16	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:50.023	9
17	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:50.078	9
18	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:50.241	11
19	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:50.420	13
20	Esteban Ocon	Manor	1:50.693	18
21	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:51.319	5
22	Max Verstappen	Red Bull		2

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.