RACE DEBRIEF

    Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes led the way during final practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix, with the seven-time world champion’s rapid lap putting him ahead of Red Bull pair Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

    Hamilton worked his way down to a time of 1m 17.811s on the soft compound tyres – including a particularly fast middle sector – to finish a quarter of a second clear at a venue that has yielded eight pole positions and eight victories for the Briton over the years.

    FP3: Hamilton heads Verstappen and Perez in final practice session at the Hungaroring

    With Pirelli’s ‘Alternative Tyre Allocation’ in play this weekend, FP3 brought another mixture of run plans throughout the 60-minute session, with Nico Hulkenberg putting his Haas up in fourth and Lando Norris keeping McLaren at the sharp-end in fifth.

    In another close session, just over half a second covered the top 10 drivers, with just over a second covered the full field of 20, setting up the prospect of an intriguing qualifying session – which will also see hard tyres enforced in Q1, mediums in Q2 and softs in Q3.

    There were no major incidents to report across the final practice session, though several drivers tested the limits and kicked up sparks over the kerbs, along with a few traffic-related moments – including F1 returnee Daniel Ricciardo almost running into Zhou Guanyu late on.

    Check out the highlights from FP3 in Hungary in the video player above.