Norris finds pace to edge Hamilton in last Hungarian practice

World champion Lando Norris topped the times for McLaren ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton in Saturday’s third and final free practice ahead of Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

On a day of dust and heat at the Hungaroring circuit, Norris clocked one minute and 17.939 seconds to beat Hamilton by 0.117sec.

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli was third-fastest for Mercedes, 0.129 adrift.

It was the first time this year that a Mercedes had not topped the final practice session ahead of qualifying, confirming how closely-contested this weekend’s racing has been.

Charles Leclerc was fourth in the second Ferrari ahead of Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren with George Russell sixth for Mercedes ahead of the Red Bulls of four-time champion Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar.

Liam Lawson was ninth for Racing Bulls and Nico Hulkenberg 10th for Audi while the two Aston Martins, using the team’s new B-spec cars, wound up 17th and 18th with two-time champion Fernando Alonso edging ahead of Lance Stroll.

Following overnight repairs to the track in response to driver complaints about the bumpy surface, the session began with Franco Colapinto leading out in his Alpine in sizzling heat with a track temperature of 52 degrees Celsius.

After 15 minutes, there were only Valtteri Bottas, Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll, his Aston Martin newly repaired after a suspension failure on Friday, had joined Colapinto.

Piastri and Leclerc then ventured out.

Alpine’s impressive rookie Arvid Lindblad was absent, until the final minutes, with a power-unit problem discovered after the team had performed curfew-breaking repairs on Colapinto’s car following his Friday crash.

A red flag halted the action after 21 minutes when Sergio Perez’s Cadillac came to a halt at turn two, re-named Hamilton this year, brakes ablaze after over-heating.

After a five-minute pause, the action resumed with Antonelli and Verstappen joining the fray.

With 35 minutes gone, Antonelli was 20th, his best lap erased for exceeding track limits but after pitting he went second and then top.

The Italian had rediscovered his vim and his Mercedes was much improved overnight.

Norris responded with a faster lap before Ferrari sent both cars out on new soft tyres with 10 minutes remaining.

Hamilton, showing pure pace, took command, only for Norris to drive the first lap under 1min 18sec and edge Hamilton by a tenth of a second.