Hungarian GP: Hamilton leads Verstappen by 0.088s in Practice 3

Battle lines are being drawn as Lewis Hamilton led Max Verstappen by just 0.088s in final practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The hour of running on Saturday morning was disrupted by a crash for Mick Schumacher at Turn 11, leaving the Haas driver’s participation in qualifying in doubt.

However, it did lead to all drivers completing one final flying lap on soft tyres in the final 10 minutes.

Verstappen went fastest initially from early pacesetter Valtteri Bottas, but a purple second and third sector allowed Hamilton to pip the Red Bull driver into P1 with a 1m16.826s.

Bottas’ final flying lap was ruined by a lock-up into the Turn 6/7 chicane leaving the Mercedes driver in third, two-tenths back.

Ferrari began to show their anticipated pace at the head of the midfield in fourth and fifth, as Carlos Sainz fractionally led teammate Charles Leclerc.

Lando Norris was sixth, while Sergio Perez was a full second slower than Verstappen in seventh, a worrying gap for Red Bull no doubt.

Daniel Ricciardo showed better pace in eighth, ahead of Fernando Alonso in ninth as Alpine slipped back after a strong Friday.

10th place went to Lance Stroll, who had a strange incident in the pit lane with Antonio Giovinazzi when the Italian hit the rear wheel of the Aston Martin with his front wing leaving the garage.

Giovinazzi also ruined Pierre Gasly’s final run, as the Frenchman had to go off track to avoid the Alfa Romeo at the penultimate corner, leaving him in P11.

George Russell’s Q3 aspirations appear bleak at this point with the Briton only 16th for Williams, just ahead of teammate Nicholas Latifi.

As mentioned, Mick Schumacher is a big doubt for qualifying after a hefty crash at Turn 11 in the Haas. But he did remain considerably faster than Nikita Mazepin, who rounded out the grid.

Full results from Practice 3 can be seen below: