Norris tops tight third Hungarian GP practice

Lando Norris led a hotly contested final practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix in a tight scrap with Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli.

Norris led most of the session as drivers acclimatized to the slightly warmer conditions of early afternoon, though it was Hamilton and Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc who rotated into top spot on the penultimate set of soft tires in the final half-hour of the session.

But Antonelli leapt to the top spot with the first lap on his final set of soft tires as the session ramped up to qualifying simulations in the final minutes, setting the early benchmark after having struggled for rhythm during FP2 and even the first half of FP3. Norris responded with a sizzling lap that put him ahead by just 0.06s, but Hamilton bested both of them by lowering the benchmark by 0.15s with purple first and third splits.

Despite the warm weather, the top three found the tires were good for a second attempt at a fast lap, with Norris the first to prove it. His follow-up attempt lowered the benchmark to 1m17.939s.

Hamilton gained in the first sector but then spoiled his attempt at the chicane, abandoning the lap. Antonelli then improved his lap, but not by enough to move into the top two.

With no other driver coming close to the top three, Norris’s position at the head of the table was fixed. Hamilton’s first lap kept him in second position only 0.117s slower than Norris, while Antonelli ended up just 0.012s further back.

Leclerc was scrappy with his final set of tires, losing too much time in the middle sector with his first lap and then locking up into the first turn to botch his final attempt, leaving him third and 0.352s off the pace.

Oscar Piastri started the session strongly but gradually lost touch to end the hour 0.499s slower than his session-topping teammate.

It was a similar story for George Russell, who never looked likely to contend at the front and ended the hour 0.602s off the pace and almost half a second down on teammate Antonelli.

Red Bull Racing was anonymous in the final practice session before qualifying. Max Verstappen led the way in seventh but was 0.717s down on Norris, while Isack Hadjar complained of “horrific … disgusting” downshift problems that he said rendered his car undrivable in eighth place and 1.004s off the pace.

Liam Lawson was only 0.145s further back for Racing Bulls, while Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10 ahead of teammate Gabriel Bortoleto.

Pierre Gasly was 12th ahead of Arvid Lindblad, who got only around 5m on track owing to frantic engine work on his car after a problem was identified when firing up his Racing Bulls machine ahead of the session.

Franco Colapinto was 14th ahead of Haas teammates Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman.

Aston Martin looked hopeful with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in 17th and 18th, 2.454s and 2.994s off the pace respectively in their revised cars, relegating Valtteri Bottas in the sole Cadillac of the session to 19th and 0.366s further back.

Williams teammates Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon were the last classified finishers, 3.5 and 3.6s off the pace respectively.

Sergio Perez’s session didn’t even last a lap after an engine problem forced him to stop on track at Turn 2, causing a brief red flag.

RESULTS