Spa-Francorchamps FP3: Vettel and Ferrari have the edge

Vettel's best lap time of 1:42.661 was six-hundredths of a second faster than Raikkonen, while world championship leader Lewis Hamilton signalled he could be in the hunt by setting the third fastest lap in the Mercedes, albeit a tad over a tenth adrift of the quickest Ferrari.

The stage is thus set for Hamilton versus Ferrari battle for the top spot on the grid and will all depends on what horsepower the two pace-setting teams have under wraps ready to be unleashed in Q3.

Valtteri Bottas won't be starting the 51st edition of the Belgian Grand Prix because he has been demoted to the rear of the grid due to engine penalties. Nevertheless, he was fourth fastest and inadvertently caused a red-flag stoppage.

Late in the session, McLaren duo Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne were practising slip-streaming through Eau Rouge down the Kemmel straight.

The Spaniard got by Mercedes before they straightened up and dragged down the straight towards Les Combes, but Verstappen in Alonso's tow ran out of track as Bottas, unsighted, drifted to the outside and squeezed the orange car onto the grass.

Vandoorne got on the grass with the left side of his car and was sent spinning, by the time the dust had settled he had clipped the front and rear before stopping facing the wrong way. His session was over.

The final ten minutes or so were useless as the McLaren was recovered, thus scuppering any chance of drivers going faster when the pit opened with a couple of minutes on the clock.

Notably, the orange cars were slowest of all by over four seconds compared to Vettel's benchmark time - dark days continue for the beleaguered Woking outfit.

Red Bull clearly do not have the outright speed their rivals have and will hope that their race pace will give Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo a fighting chance on Sunday, they were fifth and sixth respectively with the Dutchman 1.3 seconds shy of the top time.

Once again underlining why he is one of the most promising kids on the F1 grid, Charles Leclerc plonked his Sauber seventh on the timing screens and best of the rest.

Amid three change of ownership saga, Force India duo Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez enjoyed one of their best weekends of the season.

The Mexican was eighth fastest, a tenth and a bit up on his French teammate in tenth with Renault's Nico Hulkenberg splitting the pink cars in ninth.