Hamilton edges Verstappen in Hungarian GP final practice

A late flyer by Lewis Hamilton propelled the Mercedes driver to the top of the timesheet in Saturday's final practice in Hungary.

Hamilton fired in a lap on the soft compound tyre that put himself 0.250s clear of the Red Bull of championship leader Max Verstappen.

Sergio Perez followed behind the Dutchman, 0.256s adrift from Hamilton while Haas' Nico Hulkenberg and McLaren's Lando Norris closed out the top five.

• Hungarian Grand Prix Free Practice 3 - Results

Contrary to yesterday's opening session, conditions were nearly perfect when the field headed out on to the track for the final dress rehearsal before this afternoon's highly anticipated qualifying.

Formula 1 Alternative Tyre Allocation trial is ongoing all weekend and it seems to have introduced a level of unpredictability into the mix, much to the discontent of both Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen who criticized the experimental format.

Speaking of the championship leader, Verstappen was a lowly P11 in FP2, so the Dutchman remained to unleash the magic of his Red Bull which was the recipient of an update in Hungary.

F1 returnee Daniel Ricciardo, who was 0.4s adrift from his AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda on Friday, was the first to blast off from the pitlane.

As the circuit progressively populated, Verstappen and Perez went top, the pair opting to run on the medium tyre.

A soft-shod Oscar Piastri slot his McLaren into third, just ahead of Ocon and Norris. Meanwhile, Russell, running on the medium, was a second off the leading Red Bull duo.

Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were late to join the action, but the Alfa chargers immediately got down to business as they went P2 and P3 on the soft tyre.

A strong hot lap by Alonso on the softs propelled the two-time world champion to the top, the Spaniard outpacing Verstappen by 0.128s.

But with 20 minutes left on the clock, Norris upped the pace to set a 1m18.082s on the medium tyre that edged Alonso by 0.268s.

But that time was short-lived as Hamilton laid down a 1m17.811 on the softs, while Verstappen improved to second, 0.250s behind the Mercedes driver, with Perez up to third.

However, attempts to extrapolate a true pecking order were vain given fuel levels, tyre allocation and the track's significant evolution.

After lingering at the bottom of the field for most of the session, Leclerc and Sainz were elevated to sixth and seventh after their run on the softs.

With less than five minutes to go, Hulkenberg banged in a time on the softs that was good for P4.

That was the final noteworthy effort of the session that concluded with Hamilton leading Verstappen, Perez, Hulkenberg and Norris in the top five.

Thereafter followed Russell, Leclerc, Sainz Alonso and Bottas.

In the second half of the field, it was worth noting that Piastri was half a second down on Norris, while Ricciardo was, encouragingly, three tenths clear of Yuki Tsunoda who closed out the field.

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