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F1 Hungarian GP: Norris leads McLaren 1-2 in FP3

Lando Norris led a McLaren 1-2 in the final Hungarian Grand Prix practice session as Oscar Piastri fell just half a tenth away from his Formula 1 team-mate.

Norris put together an impressive lap to wrest top spot from George Russell by almost 0.5 seconds, amid a second set of soft-tyre runs in preparation for qualifying. The Briton's lap subsequently withstood efforts from Piastri and Max Verstappen to lead the session, putting McLaren in a good place for the afternoon's session.

A slow start to the session effectively gave the Red Bull duo clear track to play with as they circulated on the hard tyre, and thus Sergio Perez opened with a 1m19.159s.

Verstappen posted a 1m18.897s to then go quickest and followed that up with a half-second improvement, as Perez also found a time just over 0.4s shy of his team-mate. The gap re-opened when Max Verstappen set a 1m17.938s, helped by a front-wing flap adjustment to cure a modicum of understeer.

Red Bull's freedom of the Hungaroring circuit ended after 15 minutes had elapsed, prompting many of the other runners to attempt a series of faster laps on the softer grades of tyre; Norris then set the new benchmark having put together a 1m16.931s on the softs.

George Russell then found a 1m16.826s on a second run with a set of soft tyres as the Mercedes arguably looked more settled in cooler conditions, the track being 20C cooler than it was in FP1 on Friday. Norris, in the meantime, also reused his initial set of softs but could not find time on his second run.

This preceded a second round of soft-tyre runs in the final 20 minutes, and Russell found almost three-tenths on his previous lap to extend his advantage; Lewis Hamilton joined him in the top two, 0.2s shy of his younger team-mate.

George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15 (Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images)

Norris then reclaimed top spot with a 1m16.098s, putting almost half a second on Russell on a lap with new softs, and was followed by Oscar Piastri going just 0.044s shy on his own tour of the circuit.

This could not be matched by Verstappen's first effort on softs, and the Dutchman lost a quarter of a second relative to Norris in the middle sector to move up to third. In attempting a final lap at the end of the session on the same softs, Verstappen locked up at the first corner to cement the practice order.

Russell's effort was good enough for fourth, while Carlos Sainz led the line for Ferrari to claim the fifth-fastest lap, albeit after losing a wealth of time in the middle sector.

Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon impressed with sixth and seventh in the final timing order, over Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda.

Hamilton dropped down to 10th despite the fine margins to his Mercedes team-mate, as Charles Leclerc fell outside of the top 10.

F1 Hungarian GP - FP3 results

   
1
 - 
4
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Driver # Chassis Engine Laps Time Interval km/h
1 United Kingdom L. Norris McLaren 4 McLaren Mercedes 17

1'16.098

  207.253
2 Australia O. Piastri McLaren 81 McLaren Mercedes 17

+0.044

1'16.142

0.044 207.134
3 Netherlands M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1 Red Bull Red Bull 27

+0.281

1'16.379

0.237 206.491
4 United Kingdom G. Russell Mercedes 63 Mercedes Mercedes 15

+0.466

1'16.564

0.185 205.992
5 Spain C. Sainz Ferrari 55 Ferrari Ferrari 16

+0.541

1'16.639

0.075 205.790
6 Australia D. Ricciardo RB 3 RB Red Bull 15

+0.554

1'16.652

0.013 205.755
7 Thailand A. Albon Williams 23 Williams Mercedes 16

+0.563

1'16.661

0.009 205.731
8 Germany N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team 27 Haas Ferrari 15

+0.598

1'16.696

0.035 205.637
9 Japan Y. Tsunoda RB 22 RB Red Bull 16

+0.646

1'16.744

0.048 205.509
10 United Kingdom L. Hamilton Mercedes 44 Mercedes Mercedes 14

+0.688

1'16.786

0.042 205.396
11 Monaco C. Leclerc Ferrari 16 Ferrari Ferrari 17

+0.705

1'16.803

0.017 205.351
12 Finland V. Bottas Sauber 77 Sauber Ferrari 20

+0.706

1'16.804

0.001 205.348
13 Mexico S. Perez Red Bull Racing 11 Red Bull Red Bull 25

+0.856

1'16.954

0.150 204.948
14 Spain F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing 14 Aston Martin Mercedes 21

+0.903

1'17.001

0.047 204.823
15 Canada L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing 18 Aston Martin Mercedes 22

+0.987

1'17.085

0.084 204.600
16 United States L. Sargeant Williams 2 Williams Mercedes 15

+1.070

1'17.168

0.083 204.380
17 China Z. Guanyu Sauber 24 Sauber Ferrari 15

+1.193

1'17.291

0.123 204.054
18 France P. Gasly Alpine 10 Alpine Renault 15

+1.401

1'17.499

0.208 203.507
19 Denmark K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team 20 Haas Ferrari 17

+1.409

1'17.507

0.008 203.486
20 France E. Ocon Alpine 31 Alpine Renault 16

+1.477

1'17.575

0.068 203.307
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