Lando Norris led team-mate Oscar Piastri at the top of the Practice Three timesheet as the McLarens set a searing pace to seemingly make themselves favourite for pole position later on Saturday at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Norris and Piastri ended up separated by just 0.044s in an impressive session for the MCL38s with the former narrowly the quickest on a 1:16.098.
“That was phenomenal to watch!” said Sky Sports F1’s Nico Rosberg of Norris’ benchmark lap. “That was so close to perfection for driver and car.
“Magical. Incredible.”
Max Verstappen ended up as the McLarens’ nearest challenger in third but the Red Bull driver’s deficit to the front ended up being 0.281s around one of F1’s shorter laps.
Seemingly still chasing a better set-up for a single lap in a late further run on soft tyres, Verstappen ended the session by running off track after a big lock-up at the start of his final lap into Turn One.
On the rapid pace of the McLaren, Rosberg added: “It’s perfection, it’s on rails. That car is looking like an absolutely dominant force out there today.”
Underlining that apparent dominance, the rest of the field were more than four tenths of a second adrift of Norris, with George Russell the lead Mercedes in fourth and Carlos Sainz the quickest Ferrari in fifth.
With Mercedes and Ferrari’s middling pace on the evidence of Saturday morning suggesting Norris’ prediction of an eight-way fight for pole may not come to fruition when qualifying takes place at 3pm, live on Sky Sports F1, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc both endured difficult seasons and wound up 10th and 11th respectively.
Hamilton ended the session by spinning around at Turn 11 with the W15 set-up seemingly not yet to his liking.
With Hamilton and Leclerc on the fringes of the top 10, a number of the grid’s midfield runners profited to show promise ahead of qualifying.
Daniel Ricciardo continued his strong start to the weekend by finishing an impressive sixth fastest, with team-mate Yuki Tsunoda also in the top 10 in ninth to underline the RB team’s competitiveness so far.
Williams’ Alex Albon and Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg took seventh and eighth places respectively, with both Aston Martins finishing outside the top 10 despite another raft of updates being added to the AMR24 this weekend.
More to follow…
Sky Sports F1’s live Hungarian GP schedule
Sky F1’s Anthony Davidson takes a look at the iconic Hungaroring track ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Saturday July 20
2.15pm: Hungarian GP Qualifying build-up
3pm: Hungarian GP Qualifying
5pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook
Sunday July 21
7:20am: F3 Feature Race
9am: F2 Feature Race
11am: Porsche Supercup
12:30pm: Grand Prix Sunday – Hungarian GP build-up
2pm: The HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX
4pm: Chequered Flag: Hungarian GP reaction
5pm: Ted’s Notebook
Next up for F1 is the Hungarian Grand Prix from Budapest on July 19-21. You can watch every session live on Sky Sports F1. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime
