LEWIS HAMILTON 'DESTROYS' FERRARI IN THE FINAL BELGIAN GP PRACTICE

It was almost a carbon-copy repeat of Pierre Gasly's incident in Friday practice.

Lewis Hamilton left his Ferrari mechanics with a mountain to climb ahead of qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix after crashing in final practice.

In what was an almost identical incident to Alpine driver Pierre Gasly's smash in second practice on Friday, on his final flying lap in the dying moments of FP3 at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, Hamilton ran wide in emerging from the Fagnes chicane.

In attempting to control his car as it careered across the gravel, the seven-time F1 champion hit a barrier with the rear of his SF-26.

The impact immediately ripped off the rear wheel that was left hanging on by its tethers, whilst also severely damaging the rear wing.

Unlike Gasly, who spun through 360 degrees twice before finally coming to rest, Hamilton maintained forward momentum before finally stopping on track due to the damage sustained.

Asked over the radio whether he was okay, Hamilton responded by saying: "I've destroyed the car! Sorry!"

It means his team is in a race against time to repair the car and ready it for qualifying, which starts at 3pm UK [4pm CET; 10am EST].

- Ian Parkes

TWO MORE DRIVERS HIT WITH SPA GRID PENALTIES

Isack Hadjar and Lance Stroll have joined Lando Norris in receiving grid penalties for Sunday’s Belgian grand prix after taking new power unit components at Spa-Francorchamps.

Isack Hadjar will join Lando Norris and Lance Stroll with grid penalties for the Belgian Grand Prix. Image: XPB Images

Hadjar has been handed the most severe punishment after Red Bull fitted his car with a fifth internal combustion engine, turbocharger and exhaust system of the season.

Each component exceeds the Frenchman’s permitted allocation, resulting in penalties totalling 30 grid places and requiring him to start from the rear of the field regardless of where he qualifies on Saturday.

Hadjar acknowledged before the changes were confirmed that extending his run of five consecutive top-six finishes would be difficult this weekend.

“This weekend, I think another top-six finish is going to be difficult given where I’m starting from, but we’ll give it a go,” Hadjar told Canal+.

“The main focus will be on race pace. It won’t be as much about qualifying performance, because we already know what to expect.

“We’ll probably start 22nd on the grid, but Spa is a track where you can overtake. A lot can happen, and we know we’ve got decent race pace. So I’m expecting to have some fun on Sunday.”

Hadjar’s hopes of recovering through the field will depend heavily on Red Bull’s race pace as he attempts to continue his recent run of form.

His teammate Max Verstappen has also received a new engine, turbocharger and exhaust this weekend but remains within his permitted allocation and will avoid a penalty.

Stroll will meanwhile drop 10 places from wherever he qualifies after Aston Martin installed a new MGU-K on his car.

The Canadian’s penalty may have less of an impact than those facing Hadjar and Norris, with Aston Martin expecting Spa to be one of its most difficult events of the season.

Norris’ 10-place penalty was confirmed on Thursday after McLaren introduced a fourth power electronics unit on the reigning world champion’s car.

The 26-year-old had already exhausted his permitted allocation following several failures during the opening nine rounds, making a penalty effectively unavoidable.

Spa is traditionally regarded as one of the better circuits at which to serve an engine penalty due to its long straights and greater number of overtaking opportunities compared with many other venues.

- Ben Waterworth

LANDO NORRIS ISSUES 'WAIT AND SEE' PERSPECTIVE ON SPA GRID PENALTY DISCOVERY

Lando Norris has issued confidence in the possibility of a successful damage limitation job in this weekend’s Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix, after having taken a 10-place grid penalty for the race.

The reigning World Champion is braced for the significant grid drop after McLaren opted to change the power electronic unit in order to reap benefits from Mercedes’ updates to them.

It will leave Norris in an extremely vulnerable position, needing to get into Q3 and perform well to mitigate the pain of the penalty.

But, speaking to media, including Motorsport Week, ahead of this weekend’s race, Norris was hopeful of nullifying the problems the grid drop will cause, conveying quiet confidence he will make up positions.

“We will have to wait and see how the overtaking is,” he said. “Most people would deploy basically the whole battery to Turn 5, and you would go from pretty much 100 percent battery to zero, so there is not much use for the battery, so we have to wait and see.

“We probably have a small straight-line speed advantage compared to the people a little further back, so we should have a good chance.

“But just to overtake in general, I think it could be pretty difficult here.

“But the slipstream is pretty big, and there are still a few straights where there is no straight mode, and therefore the slipstream is pretty large, and you can gain a good amount for that.

“So I don’t have all the answers yet, but we know it is better than Zandvoort and better than Hungary to take penalties, so I hope it is not the end of my weekend before it starts, but I am confident we can have a good weekend.

“We will wait and see.”

What can Lando Norris expect in midfield battle at Spa?

Spa-Francorchamps presents a unique puzzle for energy management, and it is one of the reasons Norris’ optimism is not entirely misplaced.

The uphill blast through Eau Rouge and Raidillon into the Kemmel Straight is the single biggest harvesting-and-deployment zone on the calendar, with cars spending an unusually long period at full throttle before drivers are forced to lift for the Les Combes chicane.

That long full-power phase burns through battery reserves quickly, but the compensating downhill and braking zones, particularly into Pouhon and the final sector, give the MGU-K plenty of opportunity to recover energy for the next lap.

The difficulty, as Norris alluded to, is that so many cars arrive at Turn 5 simultaneously low on charge, which flattens out what would otherwise be a clear straight-line advantage for cars with stronger deployment.

That bunching effect can work in favour of a recovering driver, since the field’s energy resources are levelled just as the long straights offer the best passing opportunities.

With Spa’s notoriously changeable weather adding a further variable to tyre and energy strategy, teams will need near-perfect harvesting execution through the middle sector to have anything left when it matters heading onto the straights.

- Jack Oliver Smith

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS | BELGIAN GRAND PRIX 🇧🇪