Belgian GP: Hamilton flies in final Spa practice

The Mercedes driver, who had been outpaced by teammate Nico Rosberg in the first two practice sessions, posted a best time of 1:48.984 to finish nearly half a second clear of the German ahead of qualifying.

Ferrari was Mercedes' closest challenger this time, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen finishing in third and fourth respectively.

Sergio Perez put Force India in the top five, as Red Bull had a more subdued session and finished down in sixth and seventh, with Daniel Ricciardo ahead of teammate Daniil Kvyat.

Nico Hulkenberg completed a strong session for Force India with the eighth fastest time, outpacing the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa, who completed the top 10.

McLaren endured another poor session, with Fernando Alonso's day coming to an early end with a suspected exhaust problem that was generating very high underbody temperatures very quickly.

The team had to dismantle the car to check the problem, and Alonso failed to set a time, having completed the installation lap only.

Teammate Jenson Button finished down in 17th, only ahead of the Manors.

Story of the session

The action started with a an incident involving Manor's Roberto Merhi, who spun under braking at the Bus Stop before he managed to continue.

Rosberg put Mercedes on top seven minutes into the session, but was soon relegated to second by Nico Hulkenberg, before Ricciardo became the first man to dip into the 1:50s some 10 minutes in.

Raikkonen moved to second place before he went off at Les Fanges, managing to return to the track after a trip through the gravel.

Hamilton went fastest after 15 minutes, the Briton outpacing Ricciardo by 0.045 seconds, still running on the medium tyres.

Ricciardo returned to P1 with his first run on soft tyres, the Red Bull driver setting a new benchmark of 1:49.930.

Teammate Kvyat made it a Red Bull 1-2 on top of the times with a time just half a tenth slower than the Australian.

Rosberg waited until the 47-minute mark to try the softer rubber, and he put it to good use, jumping to the head of the times with a 1:49.482, still over a tenth off his best from Friday.

Hamilton then set the quickest time of the weekend with the soft tyres as he became the first driver to lap in the 1:48s in the Mercedes, outpacing Rosberg by nearly half a second.

Pos	Driver	Car	Time/Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:48.984	15
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	0.498	19
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	0.645	17
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	0.880	19
5	Sergio Perez	Force India	0.882	15
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	0.946	20
7	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	0.996	19
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1.016	15
9	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1.195	15
10	Felipe Massa	Williams	1.463	15
11	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	1.568	20
12	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1.601	17
13	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1.615	21
14	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1.706	17
15	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	2.070	20
16	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	2.203	18
17	Jenson Button	McLaren	2.997	12
18	Will Stevens	Marussia	5.278	16
19	Roberto Merhi	Marussia	5.297	9
20	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	no time	1