Lewis Hamilton crashed his Ferrari in practice for the Belgian Grand Prix – leaving his mechanics with a race against time to patch together his stricken car in time for qualifying later this afternoon.
The seven-time world champion walked out unscathed after running wide at the left-hander Fagnes bend at Spa-Francorchamps. But his rear right wheel was hanging on by its tether after a shuddering impact with a barrier in the final seconds of the session.
‘Are you OK?’ asked race engineer Carlos Santi.
‘I destroyed the car,’ replied Hamilton.
‘No problem,’ came the response, which was hardly convincing given that the Ferrari boys have just over two hours to get busy before qualifying starts at 4pm local time (3pm UK).
Lewis Hamilton crashed his Ferrari practice for the Belgian Grand Prix – leaving his mechanics with a race against time to patch together his stricken car in time for qualifying
Hamilton stopped in the middle of the track and inspected the heavy damage, having by then set the fifth fastest time of the day.
World championship leader Kimi Antonelli, of Mercedes, set the pace with McLaren’s Lando Norris second best and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen third.
George Russell was fourth fastest, 0.367sec behind his team-mate Antonelli. It is a big weekend for the British challenger, who is 25 points off the summit after nine of the 22 rounds.
Hamilton, too, must press his claims from third place and 32 points back. He is counting on his mechanics’ powers of recovery.
