Belgian F1 Grand Prix 2017 Qualifying: Results, Times from Friday's Practice

Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets in a rain-interrupted afternoon practice session on Friday ahead of the 2017 Belgian Formula One Grand Prix with a time of one minute, 44.753 seconds.

Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas were close behind in second and third, respectively, while just one-hundredth of a second separated Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel in fourth and fifth.

Earlier, Raikkonen put in an excellent late effort in the first free practice session to secure top spot in the morning.

He recorded a time of 1:45.502 to put him just 0.053 seconds ahead of Hamilton at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, while Vettel came third in a session that saw plenty of action at the top of the standings.

Read on for a recap of how the action played out.

FP2 Recap

Here is FP2's classification, via Formula One's official Twitter feed:

Following his crash in FP1, Felipe Massa was ruled unable to take part in the afternoon session with Williams unable to get his car ready in time.

A flurry of activity at the start of the session saw Jolyon Palmer, Raikkonen, Verstappen and Vettel all top one another before Hamilton shot to the top of the timesheets on soft tyres, per Mercedes-AMG F1:

Vettel, Bottas and Raikkonen each took turns at the top once again, but, as he had before, Hamilton soon surpassed them:

With around half an hour remaining in the session, heavy rain forced the drivers off the track:

Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso briefly emerged, but they quickly returned to the pits amid worsening conditions.

FP1 Recap

Here is the classification, per F1's official Twitter account:

The red flags were out early in the morning session. Shortly after Esteban Ocon set the first time of the day, Massa's practice came to a premature end when he hit a wall just 16 minutes in:

After the cars came back out, the session promptly became an ongoing duel between Hamilton and Ricciardo, with Bottas and Raikkonen also keeping themselves in the picture.

Indeed, Bottas managed briefly to record the quickest time, but immediately after he slipped off the track and into the tyres:

As he made his way to the pits, he was soon surpassed by both Hamilton and Ricciardo, and in turn they were split by Verstappen.

Meanwhile, McLaren's Alonso was plagued by DRS problems throughout, an issue that resulted in his disappointing 13th-placed time.

At the top of the timesheet, Vettel—who had a quiet session and was sitting back in P9—found a switch to ultrasoft tyres to have an immediate impact, as he instantly moved into second place.

With just five minutes remaining, a late surge from Raikkonen saw him top the lot with a superb effort.