Kimi Raikkonen led a Ferrari one-two in final practice for the Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday with Formula One title rivals Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton separated by only a thousandth of a second.
The top three were in a league of their own, with Red Bull Racing's Dutch teenager Max Verstappen - who had a huge orange army of fans in attendance - fourth fastest but more than a second off the pace.
Raikkonen, a four-time winner in Belgium and with a contract for 2018 freshly signed, has been consistently quick this weekend and also set the fastest time in Friday's opening practice.
He was second to Hamilton overall on Friday and his time of one minute 43.916 seconds was comfortably the fastest of the weekend and more than three seconds inside Vettel's 2009 race lap record.
READ MORE:
- Graham Caygill: Max Verstappen can bounce back in Belgium
- Countdown to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: How the F1 title fight will unfold
Vettel, 14 points ahead of Mercedes rival Hamilton after 11 of 20 races, was 0.197 slower than the Finn with a time of 1:44.113. Ferrari announced the German's new three-year deal after the session.
"Scuderia Ferrari has extended its technical and racing agreement with driver Sebastian Vettel for the 2018, 2019 and 2020 racing seasons of the Formula One World Championship," Ferrari said in a statement.
Extension of the agreement between Scuderia Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel.https://t.co/jKmGTz1Sci pic.twitter.com/36CURtCu2i
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) August 26, 2017
Hamilton, who can equal Michael Schumacher's all-time record of 68 pole positions in later qualifying, clocked a best of 1:44.114.
"Ferrari's competitive but let's wait and see for qualifying. It's going to be very close today," said Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda.
"Normally we're a little bit ahead, and now Ferrari's ahead. Everyone can find a little bit of engine speed but, unfortunately, I think Ferrari can find the same engine speed as Mercedes can."
Brazilian Felipe Massa returned for Williams, after doing only one lap on Friday before crashing. He was 16th on the timesheets.
Toro Rosso's Russian Daniil Kvyat stopped on track with a loss of power.
