Lando Norris edges Lewis Hamilton in final Hungary F1 practice as McLaren hits back
McLaren's Lando Norris outpaces Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari in final practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Formula 1 world champion Lando Norris edged Lewis Hamilton to the fastest time as McLaren struck back against Ferrari in final practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Ferrari dominated proceedings throughout Friday’s first two practice sessions but it was Norris who emerged as the driver to beat in the final hour of running before a crucial qualifying at the Hungaroring.
Norris topped the timesheet by 0.117 seconds from Hamilton in his upgraded McLaren during a late flurry of qualifying simulation runs on the soft tyre.
Mercedes struggled for pace on Friday but Andrea Kimi Antonelli had a better final practice as the F1 championship leader wound up third-fastest and just 0.129s adrift.
Charles Leclerc ended up fourth-quickest in the other Ferrari, 0.352s behind Norris’ benchmark.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was fifth ahead of George Russell, who was over six tenths off the pace, and the Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar in seventh and eighth.
Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson was ninth as Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg completed the top-10.
Aston Martin showed some promise signs as Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll put their B-spec cars 17th and 18th in the FP3 order, 2.4 and 2.9s off the pace respectively.
They did at least outpace both Cadillacs and the two Williams drivers.
Sergio Perez ended up 22nd and slowest with no time on the board after his Cadillac broke down early in final practice, causing FP3 to be red-flagged.
FP3 has set up the prospect of an exciting and closely-fought qualifying session for the Hungarian Grand Prix, which gets underway at 1500 UK time.
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