Hamilton crashes in Spa FP3, Ferrari face repair scramble
NXTbets Pro | Published On: July 18, 2026
Hamilton crashes
Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton crashed at the end of third practice at Spa-Francorchamps on Friday, leaving the team with major repairs to handle before qualifying. Hamilton ran wide into the gravel at Les Fagnes during a soft-tyre run, then clipped the barrier with his rear-right corner. The impact damaged the rear-right wheel and sent Ferrari into a scramble to get the car ready for the next session. Hamilton told the team over the radio that he was unharmed and apologized for the incident. It was a sharp setback after a clean build-up through the earlier sessions, and it came at the worst possible moment for Ferrari with qualifying looming and little time to recover lost track time. The crash also cut short a session in which Hamilton had briefly shown front-running pace, underlining how quickly the picture changed in the final minutes.
Friday practice
Hamilton still left Friday with reason to believe Ferrari has work to do. He finished second in first practice behind Max Verstappen and took fourth in second practice with a best lap of 1m46.691s, 0.747 seconds behind Kimi Antonelli. He ended both Friday sessions ahead of Charles Leclerc, which gave Ferrari one clear benchmark inside the garage, but Hamilton said the team had more ground to make up than expected. He pointed to the middle sector as the main weakness and said Ferrari has a solid foundation, though it still needs more pace before Saturday qualifying. That assessment matched the on-track picture. Ferrari showed enough speed to stay in the fight, yet the laps did not suggest a car that can take control of the weekend without more work overnight.
Antonelli leads
Antonelli set the pace in third practice with a 1:45.990 on his opening soft-tyre run, and his lap stood as the session benchmark. Verstappen finished second and Lando Norris took third, with George Russell fourth. Hamilton also popped up near the front before the crash, moving to second with a 1:46.789 lap, but the session ended with the bigger story at Ferrari. His off-track moment at Les Fagnes left the team staring at a repair job on the rear-right corner and a short turnaround before qualifying. The sequence summed up Ferrari’s Friday. The car showed enough speed to keep Hamilton near the leaders, yet the team still lacked the consistency it needs across the lap. Hamilton said he would work overnight with his engineers to improve the setup, and that effort now comes with bodywork repairs added to the list.
