F1: Hamilton edges Rosberg in FP3

Lewis Hamilton cemented his status as favourite for pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix by topping Saturday morning free practice.

The Mercedes driver had a quiet start to the session, not going for lap times on his early laps on the slower medium-compound Pirellis.

Hamilton was down in 18th place when he went out for his third run, still on the mediums, jumping to eight fastest on his 14th lap on the rubber and then knocking Fernando Alonso's Ferrari off top spot by almost three-tenths of a second on his 16th lap. But with a big step in performance between the medium- and the soft-compound Pirellis, the fastest laps were always going to be set on that rubber.

Hamilton had slipped to seventh by the time he started his qualifying simulation, but he set the fastest times in the first two sectors of the lap and then a personal best in the final one to knock teammate Nico Rosberg off top spot with four minutes remaining.

Rosberg subsequently improved on his second attempt after a cool-down lap, closing the deficit to Hamilton from 0.453sec to 0.229sec. He then improved again, cutting the deficit to just 47-thousandths.

Sebastian Vettel then went third fastest on his qualifying simulation, four-tenths off the pace, with Valtteri Bottas ending up fourth fastest ahead of the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.

Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, who had been the first of the frontrunners to go out on the soft Pirellis with 10 minutes remaining were briefly first and second after lapping just 49-thousandths apart.

But they eventually slid to sixth and seventh in the final reckoning, just ahead of Kevin Magnussen's McLaren.

Scuderia Toro Rosso proved it would be a threat for Q3 this afternoon, with Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniil Kvyat ninth and 10th ahead of Felipe Massa and Jenson Button.

Force India drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez were down in 17th and 18th place behind the Saubers and the two Lotus entries, both unable to extract a competitive laptime from the soft rubber.

Kamui Kobayashi continued Caterham's improved weekend by outpacing the Marussias of Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi, with team-mate Marcus Ericsson 21st after a brief spin at Turn 13.