Hamilton tops FP3 as Honda's hopes fade away

F1 Grand Prix, GP Belgium, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

Having been topped by Nico Rosberg in both Friday practice sessions, Lewis Hamilton moved to the front on Saturday morning at Spa, setting a 1:48.984 on a new set of soft tyres.

Red Bull Racing dropped a bit down the ranking order, seeing Vettel and Raikkonen move up into third and fourth. Sergio Perez also moved ahead of Ricciardo, going 5th fastest.

Next up were Ricciardo and Kvyat, both running notably small rear wings to compensate a little for the lack of power compared to Mercedes. Nico Hulkenberg was 8th fastest, with Williams surprisingly down in 9th and 10th, despite this being a fairly power hungry and low-drag favouring circuit.

McLaren's hopes for a move up the grid here at Spa were shattered though, with the team finding out they would have to fight Marussia to get away from the last row on the starting grid. The BBC found out that Honda's engine upgrade is indeed working, but that the nature of the circuit at Spa-Francorchamps is such that the car finds itself with 0% ERS power halfway through the lap.

For Alonso, things were even worse, with the Spaniard failing to set a time in this session, having found an exhaust issue on his installation lap. Honda had fitted a brand new engine into Alonso's car overnight, but that soon showed the exhaust problem, preventing Alonso the do any more laps.