McLaren driver Lando Norris set the pace during Saturday’s third practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix, ahead of Ferrari rival Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes.
Norris set a best time of 1m 17.939s amid the typically hot conditions at the Hungaroring, finishing just over a tenth ahead of Hamilton and Antonelli, as the drivers prepared for today’s qualifying.
When the session began at 12:30 local time, Alpine’s Franco Colapinto was the first man out onto the track, having lost a valuable race on Friday when he went wide in the final corner and slid into the barriers, causing a lot of damage to the car.
Lance Stroll also left the pits early on, after crashing out of FP1 with a suspension issue and then missing the entirety of FP2, as the Canadian looked to join team-mate Fernando Alonso to better understand the very updated Aston Martin.
As more cars gradually trickled in, one driver going nowhere was Arvid Lindblad, whose Racing Bulls machine came to a standstill amid an apparent power unit problem – the team breaking paddock curfew overnight to fix a similar problem on Liam Lawson’s car.
Around a third of the way through the session, with the likes of Antonelli, George Russell and Max Verstappen still to appear, Norris led McLaren with a 1m 19.062s on soft tyres, a couple of tenths quicker than Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar.
However, just as the timesheets were lighting up with more personal best laps, Sergio Perez ran into trouble exiting the pit lane, stalling approaching Turn 2 and causing the red flags. “I lost the engine; it had a huge brake,” said the driver of the Cadillac. “Looks like the brakes are burning in the back.”
With the track cleared and Perez transported back to the pits, FP3 action resumed at 12:56, leaving just over half an hour for the drivers to resume their practice programs and make some final observations before the all-important qualifying hour.
Antonelli, Russell and Verstappen finally took to the track at this point, with the Briton’s first lap putting him second behind Norris, the Dutchman fifth behind teammate Hadjar and the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, and the Italian provisionally sixth before losing his lap time for exceeding track limits.
However, everything changed a few minutes later, when Hamilton clocked a 1m 19.053s to take first place for the Scuderia, his teammate Leclerc was even quicker with a 1m 18.668s, and Antonelli moved between the two, before requesting an inspection of the floor of his Mercedes, which had hit the curb at Turn 4.
Coming into the final 15 minutes of the session, championship leader Antonelli made another move, producing a time of 1m 18.254s and taking control, only for Norris and his improved McLaren to take the lead again with a 1m 18.206s.
Hamilton looked set to make a clean sweep of practice for Ferrari by improving to 1m 18.056s, but Norris tried again, this time avoiding a slide in the final corner, to finish with an eye-catching benchmark time of 1m 17.939s.
Antonelli came third, ahead of Leclerc and Oscar Piastri, with Russell again in sixth (six tenths off the pace) and the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Hadjar taking seventh and eighth respectively; the latter reported an “undriveable” experience at the end.
Lawson took an encouraging ninth place for the Racing Bulls, followed by the Audis of Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, while Lindblad’s other VCARB 03 managed to make it to the final laps to split the Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Colapinto.
Haas drivers Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman were next, while the revised Aston Martins of Alonso and Stroll (who at one point came close to making contact), Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas and Williams pair Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon took up the rear, ahead of the sidelined Perez.