Lewis Hamilton bested Max Verstappen to top spot of an intriguing final practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Warm weather and a high track evolution following rain on Friday made the hour difficult to read, as did the ongoing effects of Pirelli’s reduced tire allocations for teams, which forced them to be more frugal with their run plans.
It took until the final 15 minutes for Hamilton and Verstappen to get to their soft-tire qualifying simulation laps, having spent the balance of the hour on the slower medium tire.
The Briton set his lap first, logging the ultimately untouchable time of 1m17.811s. Verstappen followed up a minute or two later, but a bad middle sector cost him 0.18s of his 0.25s deficit to top spot. The Dutchman complained afterwards of a lack of grip from the softest tire had hampered his efforts.
It was the culmination of a difficult hour for Verstappen, who even on the medium tire appeared uncomfortable. The first two corners — where the wind was also blowing particularly strongly and changing direction — caused him particular trouble with rear traction.
Sergio Perez took advantage of his teammate’s problems to put himself third and just 0.006s behind the Dutchman to complete the top three.
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Nico Hulkenberg showed Haas had dialed its car in well to the twisty Hungaroring with an impressive fourth-best time just 0.01s behind Perez, albeit the German was one of the last drivers to set his fastest lap, taking advantage of the track when it was most gripped up.
But Lando Norris was arguably the standout for McLaren in fifth. The Briton was 0.271s off the pace but set his fastest time on mediums rather than softs. Data from Friday suggested the medium tire is approximately 0.26s slower than the soft, notwithstanding the cooler Friday conditions.
The warmer weather meant most drivers struggled to keep the soft compound within its working window. Several drivers complained about soaring temperatures but were told overheating was likely to be a weekend-long problem given the nature of the circuit.
George Russell slotted into sixth with a late soft lap, putting himself 0.3s behind his session-topping teammate.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were closely matched at 0.38s and 0.42s off the pace respectively. Both drivers were rapid in the first sector but dropped time as the lap continued, suggesting poor tire temperature management by the SF-23.
Fernando Alonso was more than half a second off the pace for Aston Martin but set his best time almost half an hour still to run in the session, when the track would have been slower.
Valtteri Bottas completed the top 10 for the competitive-looking Alfa Romeo. Lance Stroll was 11th ahead of Zhou Guanyu and Alex Albon.
Oscar Piastri was 14th fastest, beating Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly and Logan Sargeant.
AlphaTauri teammates Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda were the only drivers not to use the soft tire, with Ricciardo finishing 18th and Tsunoda 20th based on their medium-tire times, sandwiching Esteban Ocon in 19th.
