Hungarian GP FP3: Piastri vs Norris for qualifying, Verstappen nowhere
F1 NewsSaturday, 02 August 2025 at 13:35
Oscar Piastri topped the final practice session for the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix with Lando Norris right behind him nothing separating the McLaren pair.
Given how the weekend developed so far and how the outcome of the final practice session, qualifying will be a Papaya affair as pole will probably be contested between Piastri and Norris unless they drop the ball somehow, or one of their rivals delivers a miracle.
McLaren's dominance continued as Piastri was just 0.032s ahead of Norris in the lead while Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was four tenths down the road in third over three tenths faster than teammate, Lewis Hamilton, who was fourth.
Kimi Antonelli showed decent form and was fifth fastest in the Mercedes, albeit over eight tenths off the pace and was ahead of Fernando Alonso who was sixth fastest, his Aston Martin teammate, Lance Stroll in seventh after another solid session for the Green cars.
Then came George Russell in eighth as Gabriel Bortoleto was a decent ninth ahead of his teammate, Nico Hulkenberg in tenth.
And while Red Bull usually improve on Saturday, both their drivers had a terrible second as four-time Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen was down in 12th, 1.246s off the pace as Yuki Tsunoda was down in 19th.
Both Racing Bulls dropped back with Liam Lawson in 14th while Isack Hadjar was last as Williams also did not have a strong session as Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon were 15th and 16th respectively.
Buildup towards FP3
McLaren, unsurprisingly, emerged as the team to beat this weekend in Budapest after Friday's running, and by quite a margin.
Ferrari, with Leclerc emerged as the second best team while the Racing Bulls were in decent form which also applied to Aston Martin who also showed a surprising pace.
But the actual surprise was Red Bull Racing's issues as Verstappen was outpaced by Tsunoda while complaining about balance and grip and ended up over one second off the pace.
Now part of that is due to Red Bull running their power unit with lower output on Friday which means the team needed to find a second through car setup which is a mountain to climb.
But Red Bull are known to find pace overnight and with Verstappen at the wheel, they should be able to improve but pole is too much to ask from them and even anyone other than the McLarens to be honest.
The layout of the Hungaroring with no high-speed corners plays to the strengths of the McLaren MCL39 which has amplified the gap to Red Bull and other rivals.
Let's check what FP3 brings.
FP3 Session Highlights
The session started in clear and dry conditions with track temperatures still high and considerably higher than Friday recording 47 degrees Celsius while ambient temperatures at 26 degrees.
Norris and Piastri were the first two driver to head out on track as others waited in their respective garages, some not even seated in their cars.
The McLarens pitted after out laps then it was the turn of Alonso and Stroll to head out on track as other drivers remained in the garages some starting their preparations to head out though.
Over ten minutes into the session and the action was scarce as Franco Colapinto was the only driver on track. Soon his teammate, Pierre Gasly followed as well as Stroll and Hulkenberg.
Soon after the session was in full swing and the drivers were out putting in the laps in their final attempt to fine tune their cars ahead of qualifying.
Most of the drivers opted for early qualifying runs on the Soft tyres while a few went for the Mediums and Hards.
Then Leclerc had a moment as his Ferrari snapped and he dipped a wheel in the gravel at Turn 12 while Oliver Bearman messed up his Turn 1, his rear tyres locking under breaking, and had to abort his lap.
Esteban Ocon was not happy with Tsunoda who appeared in front of him on the track.
Soon after, Hadjar was on the radio complaining about the traffic, Norris in particular who doesn't know to let others by according to the Frenchman.
The Albon messed up his entry at the chicane - Turns 6 and 7 - riding the kerbs hard on entry and then going out of shape on the exit of 7.
In the final 15 minutes, drivers bolted new sets of Soft tyres and started another qualifying simulation.
The Hadjar had a massive spin coming out of Turn 14 and was lucky not to crash. Tsunoda ran wide at Turn 1 after being in the wrong setting.
Verstappen continued to complain about his car balance saying that changes to improve oversteer triggered understeer.
The session was concluded with practice starts.
Hungarian GP FP3 Classification
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