Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

Hamilton top by just 0.098s in FP3 in Hungary

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Lewis Hamilton completed a clean sweep of the three practice sessions for the Hungarian Grand Prix but saw his advantage cut to just 0.098s in FP3.

The championship leader was fastest in both Friday sessions as team-mate Nico Rosberg admitted he was "chasing my tail" throughout the day. However, on Saturday morning Rosberg was much more competitive and Hamilton was only able to retain to spot by less than 0.1s.

Rosberg finished second but had to end his session slightly early as he stopped at the end of the pit lane with two minutes to go. Despite that, the two Mercedes drivers were comfortably clear of the rest of the field as Sebastian Vettel ended the session 0.889s adrift in third place - the only other driver to get within a second of the leading pair.

Daniil Kvyat was fourth but Red Bull's encouraging pace from Friday faded slightly, with the gap to Hamilton being 1.2s and team-mate Daniel Ricciardo languishing in ninth place. Kvyat pipped Carlos Sainz with his final lap, leaving the Toro Rosso driver in fifth place despite appearing to struggle with his brakes early in the session.

Sixth was Nico Hulkenberg as Force India made up for lost time on Friday. Following Sergio Perez's heavy crash in FP1, neither driver ran in FP2 while a suspension issue was investigated. After finding the cause and implementing a solution, Force India had a busy morning on Saturday as the two cars completed 55 laps between them, though Perez was down in 15th.

Max Verstappen was seventh quickest - 0.3s slower than team-mate Sainz - with Fernando Alonso an encouraging eighth for McLaren ahead of Ricciardo and Romain Grosjean's Lotus.

It was a disappointing session for Williams as Felipe Massa finished 12th and Valtteri Bottas 14th, suggesting Q3 could be a struggle for the team later in the day. However, it was a close session as just half a second covered Alonso in eighth back to Perez in P15.

Kimi Raikkonen was 16th after he hit more trouble and completed just 12 laps. Raikkonen was coasting in the middle sector and had to skip the chicane to allow traffic past, but he returned to the garage and didn't run again after radioing in to say: "I don't know what happened, do I have a puncture?"

Click here for a gallery of Sergio Perez's crash in FP1 at the Hungarian Grand Prix

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:22.997	12
02	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:23.095	20
03	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:23.886	19
04	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	1:24.215	17
05	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:24.326	22
06	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:24.483	30
07	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:24.678	22
08	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:24.846	16
09	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:24.929	12
10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:24.941	22
11	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:24.953	16
12	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:25.094	13
13	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:25.229	16
14	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:25.345	17
15	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:25.393	25
16	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:25.661	12
17	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:26.060	20
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:26.095	20
19	Will Stevens	Manor	1:28.757	19
20	Roberto Merhi	Manor	1:28.908	20

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.