(Williams Martini Racing)
Williams Martini Racing's Valtteri Bottas was the pace setter in the final free practice before this afternoon's qualifying session for Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps in changeable conditions. The Finn set a time of 1m 49.465s to end the session 0.268s ahead of Infiniti Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo.
Mercedes Nico Rosberg set the third fastest time ending the session just 0.274s behind Bottas. Following a difficult start to his weekend yesterday Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen did a great job to finish the session in fourth place with Lewis Hamilton in 5th place. The 2008 world champion set an identical time to the Iceman on Soft tyre.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was 6th fastest 0.425s behind Bottas and just ahead of the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat who continued to impress. The Russian ended the session 0.428s behind Valtteri Bottas.
McLaren's Jenson Button was 8th fastest for McLaren Mercedes finishing the session just ahead of the Williams Martini Racing FW36 of Felipe Massa while Jean Eric Vergne rounded out the top ten 1.070s off the pace set by Bottas.
Sahara Force India's Sergio Perez ended the session just outside the top ten in eleventh place just ahead of his McLaren replacement Kevin Magnussen.
It was another difficult session for reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel as the German ended the session in 13th place after a slight brake issue which saw a brake spot get stuck in the front brake disc which meant the team spent time trying to sort out the problem.
Nico Hulkenberg was 14th fastest in the second Force India finishing the session just ahead of the Sauber F1 Team's Adrian Sutil.
It was a difficult session for the Lotus F1 Team duo of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado as they finished the session in 16th and 17th place respectively and were the first driver's to be over 2s behind Valtteri Bottas.
Esteban Gutierrez was 18th in the second Sauber finishing the session just ahead of the Marussia pairing of Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton. The Caterham duo of Marcus Ericsson and Adnre Lotterer rounded out the time-sheets in 21st and 22nd respectively.
There was no meaningful running during the first 30 minutes of this morning's session due to wet weather conditions with the fastest lap times coming in the final half hour of the session. It is expected that this afternoon's Qualifying session will be affected by rain due to mini climate that the Spa Francorchamps circuit seems to have.
Qualifying gets underway at 1PM (UK time)
© Ben Johnston 2014
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