Hungaroring, FP3: Latifi tops wet final practice session for Williams 

Williams’ Nicholas Latifi profited from a rapidly improving track at the end of a wet-drying session to top the timesheets in final practice for the 2022 FIA Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished second, 0.6s off the Canadian, and Alex Albon was third in the other Williams FW44.

Heavy rain in advance of final practice meant conditions at the start of the one-hour session were treacherous but Leclerc was one of the first on track and he was joined, four minutes into the session, by Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz. Both were on full wet tyres.

It was Sainz who established the early benchmark with a lap of 1:45.569, well over 20s down on Friday’s best times in dry conditions. Lerclerc soon took over at the top with a lap of 1:43.364 as the rain began to stop and that prompted Alpine’s Fernando Alonso to test the conditions on green-banded intermediate tyres.

The two-time champion’s efforts were not wholly successful but after moving to seventh, some 4.5s off the pace, he then improved significantly to move to third behind Sainz, 2.4s off leader Leclerc.

Aston Martin due Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll, both on full wets, then improved to dislodge Alonso, with Vettel 2.2s off Leclerc and Stroll a further two tenths back. Then, with the first third of the session complete, the rain began to intensify.

It led to a five-minutes lull in improvements but then Haas’ Mick Schumacher took the track on full wets and despite reporting "a lot of standings water" the German jumped up to third place, 1.7s off the pace.

As the session reached the halfway mark the rain began to ease off and Vettel promptly moved to second thanks to a lap of 1:44.178 that left him +0.8s behind Leclerc. McLaren’s Lando Norris then took his McLaren to fourth, + 1.2s behind thanks to a lap of 1:44.635.

There was no sign of either Red Bull Racing driver in the opening phases of the session but with a little under 20 minutes left on the clock both Max Versatppen and Sergio Pérez joined the action. And while Pérez struggled in the conditions, before eventually retiring to his garage for tweaks, Verstappen, after some exploratory laps, made his way to P9 with a lap of 1:45.232 that left him 1.8s off Leclerc.

With 11 minutes left, Alonso jumped up to second on intermediate tyres, just 0.206s off Leclerc’s wet-tyre benchmark, but there the improvements halted.

With nine minutes remaining Vettel lost the rear of his Aston Martin on the run to Turn 10 and he spun through the gravel trap and into the barriers bringing out the red flags.

The session was stopped for five minutes while the German’s car was recovered and with the sun shining and the track drying quickly, it was clear that when the green lights were shown, the final four minutes would offer up considerable improvements.

And it was Latifi who made the most of the conditions. Verstappen jumped to P1 with a lap of 1:43.205 in the final moments, Leclerc pushed past that with a lap of 1:42.141, over a second better, and then Albon split the championship leaders with a lap of 1:42.381.

Latifi, though, was the last man to cross the line and in the rapidly improving conditions he eclipsed them all with a lap of 1:41.480, 0.661 clear of Leclerc.

Behind the top four, George Russell was fifth for Mercedes ahead of Alonso, while Sainz finished seventh ahead of Norris, Vettel and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.