Formula 1 News: Norris tops final practice for Hungarian GP

McLaren driver Lando Norris turned a lap of 1m16.098s to top final practice for the 2024 Hungarian GP at the Hungaroring.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Oscar Piastri turned a lap of 1m16.142s to go 2nd quickest, 0.044s down on his teammate Norris and to underscore that McLaren is the best car in F1 in 2024.

Max Verstappen spent the majority of the session on hard tires working on race runs, but later went 3rd quick, 0.281s behind Norris. The Dutchman only made one quali-sim run while the other drivers made many. He was going to try another but locked up bad in Turn 1 on used soft tires and abandoned the lap.

Mercedes driver George Russell turned a lap of 1m16.564s to go 4th quickest, but a massive 0.466s behind Norris

Carlos Sainz Jr. rounded out the top-5 in his #55 Ferrari, 0.541s behind.

Lewis Hamilton spun on the exit of Turn 9. Replays show he was fighting the car all the way through Turn 8, he caught a snap on entry into 9 and then just couldn’t keep it pointing the right way on exit with the car all out of shape.

It was a relatively slow spin, and he kept well clear of the barriers – but the bigger issue is the fact he is again much slower than his teammate.

Daniel Ricciardo was sixth, Alex Albon seventh and Nico Hulkenberg eighth, ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in ninth. Those were all impressive laps, and show that the top teams might not have it all their own way later on – especially in the fight for Q3.

Red Bull will hope a few tweaks plus a bit of engine mode will bring Verstappen back into play in qualifying, but Perez looks to be struggling again.

As it stands, Mercedes and Ferrari both need to find something having dropped back today, while Aston Martin are way out of the top 10 as it stands. RB look good, and so do Haas today… But the gaps are small, less than a second separating the top 15 cars today.

Unquestionably, Lando Norris is the favorite to win the pole in two hours time.

Related Article: Formula 1 News: Norris tops Practice 2 for 2024 Hungarian GP

2024 Hungarian GP Practice 3 Results