Lando Norris topped the timesheet in final practice for the 2024 FIA Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix, with the British driver beating team-mate Oscar Piastri by just four hundredths of a second to hand McLaren a 1-2 ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
At the start of the session, Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Pérez was the first to set a time and on Hard tyres he set a slightly unrepresentative marker of 1:19.159. He was soon ousted by Verstappen who went two tenths quicker to stop the clock at 1:18.897 and then improved to 1:18.312.
After reporting some understeer and heading back to the garage for a front wing adjustment, the Dutchman returned to the track on hiw own and as the quarter hour mark arrived he lowered the benchmark to 1:17.938.
At last other drivers began to join the fray and Valtteri Bottas took P2 on Soft tyres with a time of 1:18.206. Alex Albon, though, was going quicker and the Williams driver jumped to P1 with a time of 1:17.646.
The McLaren and Mercedes drivers were now on track, though, and Norris, on Soft tyres, took P1 with a time of 1:16.931, half a second clear of Piastri and with Hamilton and Russell in third and fourth. The RBs then popped up, with Daniel Ricciardo vaulting to second, 0.441s behind Norris, and with team-mate Yuki Tsunoda in third.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz avoided a close call with Nico Hülkenberg in the penultimate corner as both wound up for a flying lap, but having made his way past the Haas, Ferrari driver Sainz settled into his hot lap and jumped to second place on 1:17.289.
As the halfway point arrived Russell went quicker than anyone, with the Mercedes driver posting a lap of 1:16.826 to beat Norris by just over a tenth of a second. Behind them, Piastri moved back to third ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who was making up for lost time after crashing out in FP2. Russell then improved to 1:16.564 as Hamilton climbed to P2, 0.222 off his team-mate.
Norris then beat both by a margin to set a new benchmark at 1:16.098, 0.466 clear of Russell and the McLaren driver was joined by Piastri, four hundredths of a second off his team-mate.
After pounding around on Hard tyres for the first two thirds of the session, the Red Bulls at last emerged on Soft tyres but Verstappen couldn’t match the pace of the McLarens and his 1:16.379 was only good enough for third. 0281 off Norris. Pérez was struggling even more and the Mexican, rooted to the bottom of the order with his earlier Hard-tyre time, could only manage 13th at the flag with his Soft-tyre effort.
It meant that with the McLaren pair in the top two, with Verstappen just behind, fourth place went to Russell, with Sainz fifth ahead of Ricciardo, Albon and Hülkenberg. Tsunoda was ninth in the other RB and tenth place was taken by Hamilton.
2024 FIA Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix – Free Practice 3
1 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:16.098 17 207.253
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:16.142 0.044 17 207.134
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:16.379 0.281 27 206.491
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:16.564 0.466 15 205.992
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:16.639 0.541 16 205.790
6 Daniel Ricciardo RB/Honda RBPT 1:16.652 0.554 15 205.755
7 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:16.661 0.563 16 205.731
8 Nico Hülkenberg Haas/Ferrari 1:16.696 0.598 15 205.637
9 Yuki Tsunoda RB/Honda RBPT 1:16.744 0.646 16 205.509
10 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:16.786 0.688 14 205.396
11 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:16.803 0.705 17 205.351
12 Valtteri Bottas Sauber/Ferrari 1:16.804 0.706 20 205.348
13 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:16.954 0.856 25 204.948
14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:17.001 0.903 21 204.823
15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:17.085 0.987 22 204.600
16 Logan Sargeant Williams/Mercedes 1:17.168 1.070 15 204.380
17 Zhou Guanyu Sauber/Ferrari 1:17.291 1.193 15 204.054
18 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:17.499 1.401 15 203.507
19 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:17.507 1.409 17 203.486
20 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:17.575 1.477 16 203.307