Lando Norris of McLaren set the fastest time during Saturday’s third practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring. He finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli driving for Mercedes, in a session that saw close competition among several teams.
Norris recorded a best time of 1 minute, 17.939 seconds. This placed him just over a tenth of a second faster than both Hamilton and Antonelli as drivers prepared for the upcoming Qualifying session.
Practice Session Highlights
The session began at 12:30 local time with Alpine driver Franco Colapinto being the first on track. Colapinto had previously experienced car damage on Friday after sliding into the barriers at the final corner. Lance Stroll also made an early appearance, aiming to gather data for the updated Aston Martin after missing FP2 due to a suspension issue and spinning out of FP1.
Early in the session, Norris held the lead for McLaren with a time of 1 minute, 19.062 seconds on soft tyres, placing him a few tenths ahead of Red Bull‘s Isack Hadjar. Meanwhile, Arvid Lindblad‘s Racing Bulls machine remained on jacks due to a power unit issue, following a similar problem on Liam Lawson’s car that required the team to break the paddock curfew overnight.
The session was interrupted when Sergio Perez encountered trouble exiting the pit lane, stopping on the approach to Turn 2 and causing red flags. The driver reported losing his engine and experiencing a massive brake issue, with his rear brakes appearing to be on fire.
After the track was cleared and Perez‘s car was removed, practice resumed at 12:56, leaving just over 30 minutes for drivers to complete their programmes. At this point, Antonelli, George Russell, and Max Verstappen finally joined the track. Russell‘s initial lap put him second to Norris, while Verstappen was fifth behind his teammate Hadjar and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari. Antonelli initially slotted into sixth but had his lap time deleted for exceeding track limits.
Final Minutes of Practice
The leaderboard saw significant changes in the final minutes. Hamilton posted a time of 1 minute, 19.053 seconds to take the top spot, and his teammate Leclerc then went even faster with 1 minute, 18.668 seconds. Antonelli then placed between the two Ferrari drivers, though he requested a check of his Mercedes‘ floor after hitting the Turn 4 kerb.
| Pos. | Driver | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lando Norris NOR | 1:17.939 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton HAM | +0.117s |
| 3 | Kimi Antonelli ANT | +0.129s |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc LEC | +0.352s |
| 5 | Oscar Piastri PIA | +0.499s |
With 15 minutes remaining, Antonelli moved to the top with a time of 1 minute, 18.254 seconds. However, Norris, driving an upgraded McLaren, reclaimed the lead with a 1 minute, 18.206 seconds. Hamilton then improved his time to 1 minute, 18.056 seconds, but Norris ultimately secured the fastest time of the session with his 1 minute, 17.939 seconds lap.
Antonelli finished third, followed by Leclerc and Oscar Piastri. Russell placed sixth, while Verstappen and Hadjar secured seventh and eighth positions for Red Bull, respectively. Lawson finished ninth for Racing Bulls, ahead of Audi drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto. Lindblad, in the other VCARB 03, split the Alpine cars of Pierre Gasly and Colapinto.
The Haas drivers Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman followed, with the revised Aston Martins of Alonso and Stroll, Valtteri Bottas, and Williams pair Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon completing the field ahead of the sidelined Perez.
Source: formula1.com
