02/08/2025 13:33
McLaren's title-chasing duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris found
themselves in a league of their own in final practice for Sunday's
Hungarian Grand Prix. After finishing fastest in both sessions on
Friday, Norris had to settle for second best behind Piastri at the
end of the all-important FP3 at the Hungaroring, finishing 0.032s
adrift of the Australian's stunning time of 1:14.916s. It was a lap
already three-tenths of a second faster than Norris' pole position
time. As for the rest of the field, they were effectively nowhere,
led by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, albeit four-tenths of a second
off the pace, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton next best, but another
0.369s adrift. As for four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen, he
appeared to be in a much-improved RB21 initially following
overnight changes after another miserable Friday in which he
described the car as "undriveable", only to bemoan it 'ploughing'
into understeer after the team had fixed the rear late on. A
mistake out of Turn 12 heavily compromised his major run, leaving
him 12th on the timesheet, with team-mate Yuki Tsunoda a wretched
19th. Temperatures rise Although the conditions were the best of
the weekend so far, with an air temperature of 27 degrees Celsius,
leading to a track temperature of over 47, it was a slow start. The
first timed lap did not appear on the board until after 10 minutes,
courtesy of Alpine's Franco Colapinto, with a 1:18.006s on soft
rubber. With the cars clearly laden with fuel, Sauber's Nico
Hulkenberg followed up with a 1:18.094s, whilst Colapinto's
team-mate Pierre Gasly set a 1:18.104s. On the medium compound, and
after finishing fourth quickest on Friday, Lance Stroll moved to
the top with a 1:17.540s in his Aston Martin, only Tsunoda to shave
half a second off that time in his Red Bull. Stroll then reclaimed
top spot by two-tenths of a second on a follow-up push lap. After
20 minutes, only the aforementioned five drivers had set times
before Verstappen lowered the benchmark to 1:16.547s, albeit on
soft Pirellis. As the rest of the field soon filed out on track,
naturally, the times tumbled, as first Leclerc and then Mercedes'
George Russell went fastest, swiftly followed by Piastri with a lap
of 1:16.240s, ousting the Briton by 0.072s. Norris' first flier
left him 0.429s off Piastri due to traffic, as well as a small
error out of Turn 12. On a second push lap, Verstappen moved to the
head of affairs by 0.038s over Piastri, only for Leclerc to purple
the first two sectors and depose the Dutchman by 0.065s, which
would have been more but for a slight mistake in the final sector.
Pushing again, Norris elevated himself to third, 0.079s behind the
Monégasque, leaving the top four covered by a tenth of a second at
the halfway stage. Moments later, Piastri became the first driver
to break through the 66-second barrier with a 1:15.871s, following
which Hamilton edged himself into P2, 0.144s behind the Australian,
and exactly a tenth ahead of Norris after another improved lap.
With track temperatures pushing 50 for the low-fuel runs at the end
of the session, it began in blistering fashion as Piastri blitzed
the track to post an astonishing 1:14.916s. Hamilton could only
finish three-quarters of a second adrift, whilst Norris came within
a whisker, 0.032s down. Leclerc managed to get to within
four-tenths before Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar suffered a major
moment out of Turn 13 after finding the astroturf on the outside of
the corner, forcing him into a severe lock-up as he tried to
control the slide. There was no improvement in the closing stages,
leaving Piastri on top ahead of Norris, Leclerc and Hamilton.
Behind the McLarens and Ferraris was a much-improved Kimi Antonelli
in a Mercedes, which has returned to a previous-spec rear
suspension, followed by Aston Martin duo Fernando Alonso and
Stroll, with Russell eighth quickest, and the only other driver
within a second of Leclerc. Stake duo Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico
Hulkenberg completed the top 10, whilst Hadjar's major error left
him bottom, two seconds down.
