Hungaroring, FP3: Bottas quickest in final practice

Valtteri Bottas topped final final practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix, edging out team-mate Lewis Hamilton by four hundredths of a seconds and beating third-placed Sergio Pérez of Racing Point by just under two tenths of a second as Mercedes-powered cars took the top three spots.

A busy opening phase, in which teams attempted to make up for the time lost in a wet FP2 yesterday afternoon, saw top spot swap hands regularly with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in P1 early on thanks to a soft-tyre lap of 1:17.639.

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen then moved ahead with a lap of 1:17.033 set on the medium tyres but Bottas and Hamilton took over with Styria winner Hamilton going quickest with a lap of 1:16.472.

Pushing to match the pace of the Mercedes pair, Verstappen then spun in Turn 12, though he was able to quickly regain control and he managed to avoid damage. Hamilton too went wide at the tricky corner and has his time deleted.

When the move was made to new softs for qualifying runs it was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who made the first move and the Monegasque racer took top spot with a lap of 1:15.781 in a much more competitive looking Ferrari.

Bottas then moved backl to P1 with a good lap of 1:15.437 and after Hamilton was forced to abandon his first attempt and then failed to make significant improvements on his next run, the Finn’s lap remained the benchmark until the chequered flag. H

Sergio Perez put his Racing Point third, which shunted Leclerc to fourth, but the Ferrari driver’s pace was good enough to allow him to split the Racing Points, with Lance Stroll fifth at the flag. Verstappen finished sixth, though the Red Bull driver ended the session 0.647 off Bottas’ pace.

Lando Norris was seventh for McLaren ahead of Vettel and Pierre Gasly, while Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top 10.