Lando Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri led a McLaren one-two at the top of the timesheets during the third and final practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix, with the pair outpacing Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
After Friday’s second practice was disrupted by Charles Leclerc hitting the barriers and causing a red flag, drivers returned to action for FP3 at 12:30 pm local time, their last chance to prepare before qualifying later in the day.
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In slightly cooler conditions, with temperatures reaching 27 degrees Celsius, Verstappen was one of the first to set a timed lap. However, the Dutchman reported some understeer and a lack of rear grip in his RB20.
The session became busier in the final 40 minutes as many drivers went out on the soft tyre for their flying laps. Lando Norris, who topped FP2, was fastest at the halfway point with a time of 1m 16.931s.
RB’s Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda impressed by moving into second and third, respectively, during those runs. Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz had a moment through Turn 4, the exact spot where teammate Leclerc spun off on Friday.
Red Bull and Aston Martin appeared to use different tyre strategies, saving the soft compound for later. As the hour progressed and times fell during the second round of fast laps, Mercedes was displaced at the top by a flying Norris with a time of 1m 16.098s, nearly half a second clear of George Russell.
Piastri was also quick but fell just 0.044s short of Norris’s time, while Verstappen’s first lap on the softs was not smooth, placing him in third. The Red Bull driver also went wide on his final attempt.
Russell took fourth for Mercedes, followed by Sainz in fifth and Ricciardo in sixth. Alex Albon had a promising run for Williams, finishing seventh, followed by Nico Hulkenberg in eighth for Haas.
Tsunoda secured P9 in a strong session for RB, while Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top 10. The seven-time world champion briefly brought out yellow flags in the final minutes after spinning at Turn 9, but he quickly recovered.
Leclerc managed P11 upon his return after missing most of FP2, ahead of the Sauber of Valtteri Bottas in P12 and Sergio Perez in P13 for Red Bull, despite showing good pace on Friday.
Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were 14th and 15th for Aston Martin, while Logan Sargeant in the Williams, Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu, Pierre Gasly for Alpine, Kevin Magnussen for Haas, and Esteban Ocon for Alpine rounded out the order.
Attention now turned to qualifying, set to take place later in the day at 4:00 pm local time.
Hungarian GP FP3 Results
2024 Hungarian Grand Prix FP3, 20 July 2024
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