Qualifying gets under way at 14:00 BST...

A 13-car pile-up, spectacular crashes, a furious pit-lane bust-up, horrendous weather from start to finish and a maiden win for one of the sport's underdogs.

Find out why Spa 1998 remains one of the most remarkable F1 races ever with our feature here.

Image source, F1

Image source, .

Image source, F1

August 1998. Max Verstappen was only 11 months old, everyone was still wondering what happened to Brazil and (the original) Ronaldo in the World Cup final as they lost to France and the likes of Spice Girls and Boyzone were clogging up the top of the music charts.

Image source, Getty Images

There was also a pretty special Belgian Grand Prix. In fact it remains one of the most amazing races of all time...

Jennifer Harris: When are #Liberty, external going to introduce roll-over penalties? It would put a stop to the drivers "why bother?" attitude and stop teams changing three engines in one weekend, taking a penalty only once.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Ferrari and Mercedes are set for a tight battle for pole position at the classic Spa-Francorchamps track for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel set the pace in final practice from team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton but the margins were tight.

Vettel, 24 points behind leader Hamilton in the championship, was 0.063 seconds quicker than Raikkonen and 0.137secs ahead of Hamilton on the 4.3-mile track, the longest on the calendar.

But both Ferrari drivers did two flying laps on the super-soft tyre in qualifying simulation trim, improving on their second, while Hamilton and team-mate Valtteri Bottas only one.

After the first laps, Raikkonen led by 0.033secs from Vettel, with Hamilton only 0.031secs further back.

There is also the possibility of rain to complicate matters - and in the wet at the last race in Hungary Mercedes had an edge on Ferrari at a track where the red cars were more superior in the dry than they appear to be in Belgium this weekend.

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Stoffel Vandoorne has just spoken to Sky Sports about that incident with Bottas.

"Valtteri didn't see what happened," said Vandoorne. "He let Fernando through and I was right behind Fernando. It is up to the stewards to decide what happens."

Bottas is already guaranteed to be on the back row, as he and Nico Hulkenberg have engine grid penalties. Not only the race to be starting first, but also a battle to be starting last.

Maybe a time penalty coming for Bottas as well? We will see.

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Well, this certainly livened things up. It has been a home race to forget so far for Stoffel Vandoorne. McLaren now face a battle to get him ready for qualifying after this altercation with Valtteri Bottas, who may well have a trip to the stewards to deal with.

Image source, F1

Image source, F1

For the third time in three sessions, Ferrari lead the way.

Vettel in FP1, Raikkonen in FP2, now Vettel in FP3.

1. Vettel, 2. Raikkonen, 3. Hamilton, 4. Bottas, 5. Verstappen, 6. Ricciardo, 7. Leclerc, 8. Perez, 9. Hulkenberg, 10. Ocon, 11. Ericsson, 12. Grosjean, 13. Sainz, 14. Magnussen, 15. Gasly, 16. Hartley, 17, Stroll, 18. Sirotkin, 19. Alonso, 20. Vandoorne.

A word on Sauber. Seventh and 11th is a cracking effort from them. Toro Rosso, Williams and McLaren have a lot of work to do if they are even to get themselves out of Q1 later on.

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Two minutes left, and it a huge queue of these cars wanting to get out there for one more lap Pierre Gasly is a bit too keen. He gives it the full power, and spins coming out of the pit lane. Not one he will want to be reminded of.

"I didn't see him (Vandoorne)."

Image source, Getty Images

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra

What was Bottas doing? On the straight he was not realising Vandoorne was there and driven him off the road. He didn't mean to, but he just did not know he was there.

Bottas didn't do that out of malice.

Red flagpublished at 11:53 British Summer Time 25 August 2018

11:53 BST 25 August 2018

That could well be it for the session as Stoffel Vandoorne's car needs to be collected.

"We need a miracle," said Stoffel Vandoorne earlier.

Clipping the barriers, a huge cloud of smoke and ending up facing the other way is not what he wanted.

It's not Vandoorne's fault. They are on the straight and Bottas has not left him enough room, Vandoorne is squeezed on to the wet grass, goes into the barrier on the left of the track, slides across the track and ends up in the opposite barrier.

"Is the car OK? Vandoorne is asked.

"No, not really," replies the McLaren man. "What the hell was that Mercedes doing, he just pushed me on to the grass."

For those missing our very own Niamh Lewis, who has taken the day off to eat some waffles after doing a wonderful job on this page yesterday, here are her thoughts...

Niamh Lewis‏: I want Kimi to do well in quali today... he got the quickest time yesterday, Spa is his most successful circuit with four wins there, and he’s been on the podium in the last five races. If he’s going to win at some point this season, Spa is the most likely it seems #gokimi, external

Kimi Raikkonen tells us we have a little bit of rain. He has just lost the top spot as well, with Sebastian Vettel's time of 1:42.661 our new leader.

Raikkonen is next 1:42.724, with Hamilton's best a 1:42.798.

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Jeremiah Kariuki‏: Vettel finally arrives! This is going to be a very close #Qualifying, external between Ferraris and Mercedes.

Remember, it looks a three-way battle for pole, with Bottas relegated to the back because of engine grid penalties. Red Bull, sadly, not really at the ball game today, well off the pace but still fifth and sixth.

Image source, Reuters

That's 213 mph if you fancy. And less than seven hundredths of a second separate our top three.

Vettel fastest in sector one, but is only second quickest overall. Lewis Hamilton also improves, as does Valtteri Bottas.

So, so close. All the best times are on the super softs...

• Raikkonen 1:42.734, Vettel 1:42.767, Hamilton 1:42.798.

Tighter than a Spa commentary box. Qualifying is going to be fun. That gets going at 14:00 BST. Better not miss it.

Image source, Reuters

Vettel on a flyer...