McLaren dominate final practice in Hungary

McLaren sent a warning to the competition after securing a dominant 1-2 in the final practice session at the Hungaroring, with Daniel Ricciardo also heading into qualifying on a high as the sixth-fastest driver in FP3.

Despite having only 60 minutes on the clock ahead of qualifying, it was a quiet start to FP3 around the much cooler Hungaroring.

Oscar Piastri was one of the few drivers to kickstart the final session on time, scrubbing in a set of hard compound tyres, leaving him with only one fresh C3 set for tomorrow’s race. 

He completed two sighting laps before returning to the pitlane, remaining there for the foreseeable future. 

As he sat comfortably in his garage, the two Red Bull cars were the only challengers to record a time. 

Max Verstappen, complaining about an array of issues with his RB20 in the middle sector, recorded a hard compound time of 1:17.938s, eight-tenths quicker than his teammate’s opening lap.

After 15 minutes, however, the track became populated with the Alpine, Aston Martin and Sauber cars before the remainder of the grid followed suit to start their qualifying runs.

Completing his first push lap on the soft compound, Piastri charged to second place with a time of 1:17.428s, making it an early McLaren 1-2.

He returned to the pitlane shortly after, only rejoining with under half of the session remaining. 

Bouncing across the kerb on his second flying lap, Piastri improved to sit in P3, three-tenths behind the then-quickest driver, George Russell.

As the drivers made the switch to a fresh set of the C5 tyre, Piastri secured the fastest final sector, however, he again had to settle behind his blazing teammate in P2.

His fastest time of the session was 1:17.042s, seeing him kickstarting qualifying day on the front row.

Daniel Ricciardo watched on as every other driver rolled out of the pitlane, starting his FP3 session with less than 40 minutes on the clock.

After his teammate shot to the top three on his first attempt, Ricciardo went one better, demoting Yuki Tsunoda while slotting into P2 with an opening time of 1:17.372s.

Across the next few laps, the Australian didn’t improve, however, Ricciardo’s original time remained within the top six.

In the closing stages of the session, the #3 joined the trend of donning a fresh soft tyre and thus, reaped the rewards.

Ricciardo promoted himself into P4 with a time of 1:16.625s, ultimately ending FP3 in a positive P6.

As for the remainder of the grid, the soft tyre was the most common choice to begin the FP3 campaign.

After the first half of the session was completed, it was Mercedes leading over McLaren and Ferrari.

Red Bull was not in the mix, not because of a pace disadvantage, but because of the team’s different run plan ahead of qualifying.

Verstappen and Perez remained on the hard compound for the greater part of the 60-minute session, a tyre they spent limited time running on Friday. 

When they did finally make the switch to the red-marked compound, Verstappen jumped into a more familiar P3, six-tenths ahead of Perez who could only manage P13.

As the session reached the closing stages, Lando Norris shot to the top of the order, beating George Russell’s former benchmark with a time of 1:16.098s.

Norris additionally set a middle sector two-tenths quicker than Verstappen’s, revealing ongoing struggles after the Dutchman’s early complaints. 

Also moving ahead of a Mercedes were Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg, with both supposed back-marker cars demoting Lewis Hamilton on the fresh C5. 

The Ferrari drivers were not as dominant as yesterday’s results suggested, with Carlos Sainz’s fresh run placing him fifth-fastest, five positions ahead of Charles Leclerc.

Lucky to have completed their laps free of disruption, yellow flags were waved in Sector 2 with five minutes to go.

Hamilton was the cause of the interference, sitting on the grass stationary after losing the rear of his car into Turn 9 and spinning across the kerbs.

He trundled back to the pitlane allowing the session to continue, however, from there on out there were no further improvements on the timing sheet.

With McLaren proving almost untouchable in FP3, qualifying will see the remaining nine teams putting their best foot forward in a bid to outdo Norris and Piastri.

The fight for pole will kick off at Midnight. 

Image: Zak Mauger / LAT Images

Free Practice 3 Results:

2024 Hungarian Grand Prix Schedule:

Friday July 19th:

FP1: 21:30 – 22:30

Saturday July 20th:

FP2: 01:00 – 02:00

FP3: 20:30 – 21:30

Sunday July 21st:

Qualifying: 00:00 – 01:00

Race Start: 23:00

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