Hungarian GP FP3: Norris Tops Practice as Verstappen Slips to P7

Ferrari had the run of the Hungaroring on Friday. Lando Norris clearly did not get the memo. The reigning world champion produced the fastest lap of FP3 to crash Ferrari’s party, leaving Lewis Hamilton 0.117 seconds adrift and championship leader Kimi Antonelli a further 0.018s back in third. Suddenly, qualifying looks a whole lot more interesting.

Norris Serves Notice

Lando Norris was the first driver to break the 1:18 barrier all weekend, posting a 1:17.939 on his second qualifying simulation run. After McLaren spent Friday afternoon watching Ferrari parade up front, this felt like a pointed response. Hamilton tried to hit back but ran wide at the chicane on his final attempt and could only shake his head. Charles Leclerc locked up at Turn 1 and had to settle for fourth, 0.352 seconds off the pace.

Antonelli, meanwhile, was doing his best work with a lightly damaged floor after an earlier track limits deletion. The fact he still went third is either a compliment to the teenager or a gentle concern for his rivals. Probably both.

Verstappen Stuck in Traffic and Trouble

Max Verstappen ended up seventh, four tenths behind Norris, and the session was not kind to him. He lost time to traffic on his first representative lap, then dropped two tenths in the final sector on his next attempt, allowing teammate Isack Hadjar to slot ahead of him in eighth. Red Bull have been consistently off the top pace all weekend, and Friday’s sessions already raised serious questions about their competitiveness here. FP3 did nothing to change that narrative.

Hadjar, for his part, had his own rough moments, radioing that the car felt undriveable after a scrappy lap. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the RB22’s set-up.

Cadillac Provide the Red Flag

Sergio Perez barely made it out of the pit lane before his Cadillac ground to a halt near Turn 2, rear brakes apparently on fire. The team suspected a brake-by-wire issue. Twenty minutes into the session, red flag, seven-minute delay, and Perez ended the hour without a representative time. Arvid Lindblad also missed most of the session due to a precautionary power unit change at Racing Bulls, managing only a handful of laps late on.

The track surface, already under the microscope after Friday’s deterioration concerns, held together well enough in the heat. Small mercies. George Russell was sixth but over six tenths from Antonelli, a gap that will not make pleasant reading before qualifying. Russell’s Hungarian GP was already under pressure before practice three began, and nothing here changed that picture.

Full FP3 Classification

Qualifying gets under way at 14:00 UTC, check the calendar for your local time. Four teams, four genuine pole contenders, one crumbling track surface. This one could go absolutely anywhere.