Hamilton edges Verstappen, Vettel in close Hungary FP3

Lewis Hamilton edged out Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel to top a close-fought final practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon, giving Mercedes a boost heading into qualifying later today.

Hamilton left it late to put in a fastest lap time of 1m16.084s on a qualifying simulation run to beat Red Bull's Verstappen by just 0.013 seconds, with Vettel sitting a further 0.069 seconds further back in third for Ferrari.

Hamilton edges Verstappen, Vettel in close Hungary FP3

Lewis Hamilton edged out Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel to top a close-fought final practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon, giving Mercedes a boost heading into qualifying later today.

Hamilton left it late to put in a fastest lap time of 1m16.084s on a qualifying simulation run to beat Red Bull's Verstappen by just 0.013 seconds, with Vettel sitting a further 0.069 seconds further back in third for Ferrari.

All of the three leading teams looked strong throughout a shortened final practice at the Hungaroring, reduced to 50 minutes as marshals cleared up an oil spill from the Formula 2 race at Turn 4. This left a large strip of concrete dust through the corner, resulting in the cars throwing up huge clouds throughout FP3.

Hamilton's Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, remained within striking distance of the lead runners in Hungary as he finished 0.271s off teh top time in fourth place, having also lost his final push lap in qualifying after hitting traffic through Turn 4.

Charles Leclerc took fifth for Ferrari ahead of Red Bull's Pierre Gasly, who wound up six-tenths off the pace in sixth.

Lando Norris put in an impressive display for McLaren to finish seventh, half a second clear of the next-best midfield driver as Kimi Raikkonen took eighth for Alfa Romeo. Carlos Sainz finished ninth in the second McLaren, while Kevin Magnussen completed the top 10 for Haas.

Qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix begins at 1400 BST on Saturday.

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