Practice 3 Report - Verstappen leads rain-shortened session

Lance Stroll, Belgian GP 2022
© Aston Martin Racing

The final practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps was heavily disrupted by rain, reducing it to a largely unproductive outing for the drivers. Max Verstappen, running a higher downforce setup than his rivals, topped the timesheets, finishing 1.4 seconds ahead of Oscar Piastri. However, the session was red-flagged twice, limiting drivers to a maximum of seven laps and only three timed laps each.

The session began under cloudy skies, but heavy rain hit just five minutes into the action, setting the tone for the remainder of the hour. Eleven minutes in, Lance Stroll brought out the first red flag after spinning and crashing at the top of Radillon. The Canadian driver was fortunate to spin into the runoff area before hitting the outside tire wall with the left front tire of his AMR24, causing substantial damage. Stroll’s incident left his mechanics in a race against time to repair the car before qualifying.

After a nine-minute delay, the session resumed, but the heavy rain deterred drivers from venturing out. Fourteen minutes later, the Race Director declared conditions too dangerous, prompting a second red flag. Two minutes before this, the pit lane had reopened to allow drivers to practice wet starts from the grid, but only eight drivers participated, underscoring the session’s futility.

Verstappen’s session wasn’t without incident; the Dutch driver went off at Turn 9 during his out lap, though he managed to stay on the tarmac runoff area. Oscar Piastri also had a minor off in the first of the two Pouhon corners. Meanwhile, Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda both went wide into the gravel at Turn 7, with Norris’s McLaren suffering floor damage. This damage prevented Norris from rejoining the session as conditions worsened.

Daniel Ricciardo was the only driver to report technical issues, suspecting a hydraulic problem as his steering grew progressively heavier. Despite the team initially seeing no data indicating an issue and advising him to continue, Ricciardo was eventually called in for further checks on his VCARB RB01.

With qualifying expected to be run under wet conditions and a dry race forecast for tomorrow, teams are now faced with a strategic dilemma regarding downforce settings. Higher downforce would aid in qualifying but could be detrimental in a dry race, while a normal downforce setup would present the opposite challenge. This conundrum adds an extra layer of complexity to what is already shaping up to be an unpredictable weekend at Spa.