Lando Norris led team-mate Oscar Piastri at the top of the Practice Three timesheet as McLaren set a searing pace to seemingly make themselves favourites for pole position later on Saturday at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Norris and Piastri ended up separated by just 0.044s in an impressive session for the MCL38s around the twisty Hungaroring, with the Briton narrowly the quicker of the two thanks to a best lap of 1:16.098.
“That was phenomenal to watch!” said Sky Sports F1’s Nico Rosberg after seeing Norris’ quickest lap on-board.
“That was so close to perfection for driver and car. Magical. Incredible.”
Max Verstappen ended up as the McLarens’ nearest challenger in third but the Red Bull driver’s deficit to the front ended up being 0.281s around one of F1’s shorter laps.
On the rapid pace of the McLaren, Rosberg added: “It’s perfection, it’s on rails. That car is looking like an absolutely dominant force out there today.”
Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Perez, who wound up 13th quickest, had spent most of the session out of sync with their chief rivals by running on the harder-compound tyre in preparation work for Sunday’s race.
When they did eventually switch to the soft tyre for the closing stages, Verstappen did not seem especially happy with his RB20’s handling on what proved his quickest lap.
Seemingly still chasing a better set-up for a single lap in a late further run on soft tyres, the world champion then ended the session by running off track after a big lock-up into Turn One.
The single-lap deficit to the flying McLarens was even larger for Mercedes, the winners of the last two Grands Prix and on a run of four successive poles in Hungary, and Ferrari.
George Russell was the lead Mercedes in fourth. 0.466s back on Norris, with Carlos Sainz again the quickest Ferrari a further tenth back in fifth.
The going was tougher for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in the teams’ respective other cars, however. Hamilton finished only 10th quickest on his soft-tyre run and then spun around at Turn 11 in the closing stages of the session.
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Lewis Hamilton appeared to struggle with the Mercedes after he took a huge spin during P3 of the Hungarian GP.
Having missed most of Friday’s second practice session after crashing at Turn Four, Leclerc’s return to the track saw him lap 0.7s off the pace in 11th place.
With Hamilton and Leclerc finishing on the fringes of the top 10, a number of the grid’s midfield runners profited to show promise ahead of qualifying and suggest there could be shocks in the battle for the final Q3 positions.
Daniel Ricciardo continued his strong start to the weekend by finishing an impressive sixth fastest, with team-mate Yuki Tsunoda also in the top 10 in ninth to underline the RB team’s apparent competitiveness so far.
Williams’ Alex Albon and Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg took seventh and eighth places respectively, with both Aston Martins finishing outside the top 10 despite another raft of updates being added to the AMR24 this weekend.
Like the Red Bulls, Aston Martin did spend most of the session on the hard tyre and Fernando Alonso, who was 14th, was hampered on his eventual soft-tyre run by yellow flags for Hamilton’s spin.
Sky Sports F1’s live Hungarian GP schedule
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Sky F1’s Anthony Davidson takes a look at the iconic Hungaroring track ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Saturday July 20
2.15pm: Hungarian GP Qualifying build-up
3pm: Hungarian GP Qualifying
5pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook
Sunday July 21
7:20am: F3 Feature Race
9am: F2 Feature Race
11am: Porsche Supercup
12:30pm: Grand Prix Sunday – Hungarian GP build-up
2pm: The HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX
4pm: Chequered Flag: Hungarian GP reaction
5pm: Ted’s Notebook
Next up for F1 is the Hungarian Grand Prix from Budapest on July 19-21. You can watch every session live on Sky Sports F1. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime