Hungarian GP FP3: Norris leads Piastri, Verstappen the challenger
F1 NewsSaturday, 20 July 2024 at 13:38
Lando Norris topped the final practice session for the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix, as McLaren showed their pace with Oscar Piastri second fastest.
Max Verstappen was third fastest in the Red Bull as it seems that qualifying will be a showdown between the McLarens and the Dutchman.
But it is worth noting, that unlike McLaren who spent the whole of FP3 doing qualifying runs on Soft tyres, Red Bull did the majority of their running on the Hard compound with focus on long runs, which means Verstappen still has some pace to unleash in qualifying.
George Russell was fourth fastest, again the better of the Mercedes pair with Lewis Hamilton down in tenth, as the cooler conditions did not seem to benefit the Silver and Black arrows as expected. Maybe cooler temperatures in qualifying will help the W15 come alive?
It was not a good session for Ferrari as Carlos Sainz was fifth fastest with Charles Leclerc struggling and only 11th fastest in the sister car.
The rest of the top ten saw a mix of teams with Daniel Ricciardo in sixth, Alex Albon in seventh, Nico Hulkenberg in eighth, Yuki Tsunoda in ninth, while Hamilton - as mentioned - was tenth.
Sergio Perez was down in 13th in the non-upgraded RB20 while both Aston Martins also did not feature in the top ten.
In conclusion, it is advantage McLaren, with Norris in particular, but expect Verstappen to take the fight to them in qualifying in a couple of hours.
Buildup towards FP3
While Friday was a hot day in Budapest, the heat did not translate on the track as the day was over without any major conclusions regarding the pecking order this weekend, most probably as the front runners were sandbagging or just taking their time setting their cars up.
While Red Bull brought a major upgrade to their RB20, Verstappen second fastest both in FP1 and FP2, the revised car seemed solid but not brilliant... yet.
Verstappen said the team is yet to optimize the car and Red Bull usually do not turn up the wick on Friday, so keep an eye on the reigning Formula 1 Champions.
The good news for Red Bull is that Perez seems to be in a better place, not far off his teammate despite not having the upgrades RB20.
McLaren brought no upgrades this weekend but their MCL38 looked as good as ever, while Mercedes were a bit of an enigma, with Hamilton admitting he didn't have the best of Fridays.
Ferrari were surprisingly better than expected, with Sainz that is, as Leclerc binned his SF-24 in practice two losing some valuable running time, the Monegasque still struggling more than his teammate.
Which puts the spotlight on FP3, hopefully to get a clearer picture going into qualifying.
FP3 Session Highlights
Contrary to the conditions on Friday, Saturday in Budapest was overcast with track and air temperatures dropping to 39 and 26 degrees Celsius respectively as FP3 was starting.
It was somehow a slow start to the session, as teams took their time sending their drivers out, but Red Bull had a head start, sending both drivers out on Hard tyres.
With ten minutes already elapsed, the Bulls were the only cars out on track putting in the laps on the white-walled tyres.
Early feedback from Verstappen: "The middle sector, some corners I am understeering a bit much but also I don't have masses of rear grip."
It was almost 20 minutes into the session as the other drivers joined the action, the Alpines leading the way and others following with the Soft tyre being the predominant.
Worth keeping in mind that teams are saving their Medium tyres for the race, but Aston Martin used up a Medium at the start of FP3.
Pierre Gasly locked up heavily into Turn 1, but reports something wrong with his front brakes over the team radio.
While Leclerc did not seem to learn from his crash yesterday and had another moment at Turn 4 as Kevin Magnussen goes flying over a kerb. Sainz also has a tricky moment over the kerbs at Turn 4.
Almost halfway, and with the Soft tyres, the times start tumbling with Norris at the top following by Sainz, Leclerc, Ricciardo, Tsunoda, Piastri, Hulkenberg, Magnussen, Hamilton, Russell.
Russell the jumped to the top after another run on the Softs while Norris failed to improve on his second Soft run.
Red Bull on the other hand started another run on Hard tyres with heavy fuel loads, going on with their own run plan.
With 20 minutes remaining, Lance Stroll on the Mediums had a lock up going into Turn 1 and took to the run-off area.
In the final 15 minutes, another run on fresh Soft tyres started, with Norris leading the way, and put in three purple sectors and almost half a second faster than Russell to go fastest.
Piastri then went second fastest, 0.044s slower than his teammate, as more qualifying runs were underway as Red Bull finally bolt Softs on their cars for their first quali runs of FP3.
Verstappen went third fastest on his first attempt, almost three tenths of the pace - ten minutes from the end.
Six minutes from the end, Hamilton brought out the Yellow Flag in sector two, having lost the rear of his Mercedes at Turn 10, he didn't crash, but was stationary in the middle of the track, before rejoining the action.
Zhou Guanyu was the first driver to park his car and seemed to be suffering from a transmission issue, not the best time to have a problem with qualifying a couple of hours away.
The final minutes did not see any changes, and the session was concluded with practice runs.
How they finished
Norris posted a 1:16.098 to go 0.044s faster than teammate Piastri who was second, while Verstappen was 0.281s off the pace in third.
Russell was almost half a second off the pace in fourth, and 0.077s faster than Sainz in fifth.
Ricciardo was sixth fastest, 0.554s off the pace and 0.009s ahead of Albon, a superb seventh in the Williams.
Hulkenberg was eighth fastest, six tenths off the pace and 0.048s ahead of Tsunoda in ninth, the Japanese in turn, 0.042s ahead of Hamilton in tenth.
Hungarian GP FP3 Classification
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