Hungarian GP: Lando Norris leads intriguing top ten in FP3 at the Hungaroring

Lando Norris doubled down on his marker ahead of qualifying at the Hungarian GP, the Briton leading a McLaren 1-2 in final practice.

The McLarens looked epic around the Hungaroring, the MCL38 sticking to the track, whereas their nearest rival, Max Verstappen, was fighting the front end of his RB20 on the soft tyres.

Lando Norris leads a McLaren 1-2 in FP3

After Friday’s sweltering practice sessions, cloud cover and cooler conditions greeted drivers in FP3 posing an interesting tyre conundrum with Red Bull holding onto more hard tyres than rivals, but having less of the softs.

Despite the different conditions, only two drivers, the Red Bull pairing, clocked times in the first 15 minutes with Max Verstappen P1 on a 1:17.9.

They were joined by Esteban Ocon before the track got busy and P1 changed hands, over to Alex Albon, George Russell and then Lando Norris. Friday’s pace-setter lowered the benchmark to a 1:16.9 20 minutes into the session.

Neither Lewis Hamilton nor Charles Leclerc looked comfortable on their first runs, both cars twitching with the Ferrari driver having a big snap at Turn 4 where he crashed heavily in FP2.

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As for the other Ferrari, Carlos Sainz found himself fighting Nico Hulkenberg for track position. The Spaniard won that battle and the one on the timesheet as he was 0.2s quicker than the Haas.

Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly declared “I don’t know what happened” as he suffered a big lock-up, Oscar Piastri was stuck in the pits, and Sergio Perez on the hard tyres dropped all the way down to 20th place.

Russell took over P1 with a 1:16.8, a tenth up on Norris, while Hamilton running a bit deep into the braking zone was almost seven-tenths down in ninth place.

Bolting on new soft tyres, Russell shaved three-tenths off his time but it was destroyed by Norris with a 1:16.0. Piastri made it a McLaren 1-2. Verstappen put in a late run on the soft tyres, but with two notable moments on his lap, he was P3 and 0.281s down. His second flying lap saw him running wide off the track.

A spinning Hamilton, fighting the rear of his W15, brought out the yellow flags late on when he lost it on the exit of Turn 9. Zhou Guanyu’s session ended with a slow trip back to the Stake garage, his car seemingly suffering a hydraulic issue.

Times

1 Lando NORRIS 1:16.098
2 Oscar PIASTRI +0.044
3 Max VERSTAPPEN +0.281
4 George RUSSELL +0.466
5 Carlos SAINZ +0.541
6 Daniel RICCIARDO +0.554
7 Alexander ALBON +0.563
8 Nico HULKENBERG +0.598
9 Yuki TSUNODA +0.646
10 Lewis HAMILTON +0.688
11 Charles LECLERC +0.705
12 Valtteri BOTTAS +0.706
13 Sergio PEREZ +0.856
14 Fernando ALONSO +0.903
15 Lance STROLL +0.987
16 Logan SARGEANT +1.070
17 Guanyu ZHOU +1.193
18 Pierre GASLY +1.401 5
19 Kevin MAGNUSSEN +1.409
20 Esteban OCON +1.477

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