McLaren Briton leads the final free practice session at Hungaroring. Ferrari and Mercedes show strength before qualifying, while Gabriel Bortoleto finishes practice outside the top ten.
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Lando Norris was the fastest driver in the third and final free practice session for the Formula 1 Hungarian GP, held this Saturday morning (25), at Hungaroring. The McLaren Briton clocked 1min17s939 and finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton, from Ferrari, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, from Mercedes, confirming the balance between the three teams on the eve of qualifying.
The top ten in the session were: Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri, George Russell, Max Verstappen, Isack Hadjar, Liam Lawson and Nico Hulkenberg. Gabriel Bortoleto was 11th.
FP3
The third and final free practice session for the Hungarian GP began this Saturday morning with Ferrari arriving as the team to beat at Hungaroring. After dominating both Friday sessions, the Italian Scuderia began its final work before qualifying, although Mercedes had shown a very competitive race pace. McLaren and Red Bull also appeared close, while Gabriel Bortoleto arrived on Saturday surrounded by expectation, but still unable to transform Audi’s potential into a standout result. Another team closely watched was Aston Martin, which was debuting a comprehensive upgrade package on the car.
As is often the case in FP3, the first few minutes were quite calm. Most drivers remained in the pits, preserving tires and equipment, while Franco Colapinto was the first to go out on track to make up for lost time on Friday, when he handed his car over to Paul Aron in FP1 and also suffered an accident in FP2, losing a good part of the second session.
The Argentine opened the timesheets with 1min22s464 and then improved to 1min21s747, remaining in provisional lead. Gradually, other drivers began to leave the pits. Lance Stroll was one of the first to join the session, followed by Valtteri Bottas, who momentarily took second position.
Nico Hülkenberg was the first Audi driver to record a truly competitive lap. The German clocked 1min20s643 to take the provisional lead, showing that the team was once again demonstrating good pace at Hungaroring.
With increased activity on track, Oscar Piastri put McLaren at the top by clocking 1min19s918, surpassing Hülkenberg’s mark. Charles Leclerc also started the session strongly and took second position, confirming the speed demonstrated by Ferrari throughout Friday.
Shortly after, Lewis Hamilton and Gabriel Bortoleto left the pits for their first fast laps. Hamilton clocked 1min20s505, provisionally appearing among the frontrunners, while Bortoleto marked 1min21s480 and emerged in sixth position. The gap to Hülkenberg, however, was noteworthy: the Brazilian was more than eight tenths behind his teammate in his first attempt, indicating that he was still looking for the best setup for the car.
Liam Lawson also entered the fight for the top positions by clocking 1min20s317 and taking third place, while Hülkenberg again improved his time to 1min20s392, consolidating fourth provisional position. Fernando Alonso appeared among the top ten, but his lap was recorded at a time when race control warned of a slippery track in sector 6, requiring extra caution from drivers as the activity began to intensify.
With the track already quite rubbered in, the session entered its most important phase. Teams began to switch from medium to soft tires, starting the first qualifying simulations and offering a much more accurate picture of the balance of power for the pole position battle.
Still, Aston Martin, Audi, and Liam Lawson opted to remain on medium compounds, making their laps particularly relevant. Even in theoretically less favorable conditions, these cars managed to outperform several rivals who were already using soft tires, an indication that there was still hidden performance for qualifying.
At Audi, Gabriel Bortoleto returned to the track in search of improvement. The Brazilian lowered his mark to 1min20s573 and moved up to tenth place, remaining one of the few drivers using medium tires. Over the radio, his engineer used each lap to guide small adjustments, indicating braking points where there was still room to find time. The work showed that the team was focused on refining the details before the decisive attempt.
At the front, the order changed with each pass across the finish line. Max Verstappen even recorded good sector times and seemed to have enough pace to take the lead, but lost a lot of time in the final sector after making some mistakes and ended up appearing only in fourth position with 1min19s281.
Ferrari made the most of the sequence of laps. Lewis Hamilton momentarily took the lead by clocking 1min19s053, confirming that the Italian team maintained the excellent performance shown throughout Friday. Right behind, Oscar Piastri put McLaren in second position, keeping the British team very close to Ferrari.
The response came quickly from the other side of the garage. Charles Leclerc completed an even faster lap, clocking 1min18s668 to put Ferrari back in the lead of the session. The impression was that the dominance shown on Friday remained intact, especially in qualifying pace.
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At Mercedes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli also appeared among the favorites, but experienced a small setback. After climbing to fifth place and then recording a time sufficient to provisionally take second position, the Italian had his lap deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 4. The penalty dropped him to the bottom of the standings at that moment, forcing him to immediately start a new attempt.
The response was practically instantaneous. Antonelli returned to the track and clocked 1min18s812, recovering second place and once again getting very close to Leclerc’s time. George Russell also showed speed, but his run was interrupted when he completely locked up his tires at Turn 1 during a new attempt. The Briton aborted the lap, returned to the pits, and was brought back to the garage for Mercedes to make new adjustments.
Meanwhile, Isack Hadjar continued to draw attention by putting Red Bull in third position with 1min19s085, reinforcing the good momentum the Frenchman was experiencing this weekend. Further back, Oliver Bearman, Pierre Gasly, and Carlos Sainz found some improvement in their fast laps, although they remained far from the fight for the top positions.
With just over twenty minutes left in the session, track activity decreased again. Most drivers returned to the garages for final adjustments to suspension, aerodynamics, and tire pressure before the final qualifying simulation. The stage was set for the decisive minutes of FP3, the last opportunity to adjust the cars before the session that would define the pole position for the Hungarian GP.
After the break for final adjustments in the garages, the track became busy again in the final 15 minutes. It was time for the definitive qualifying simulations, with virtually the entire grid using new soft tires and reduced fuel.
Ferrari was the first of the favorites to go on the attack. Charles Leclerc returned to the track with a new set of tires and lowered his mark to 1min18s291, placing himself back among the top three. Lewis Hamilton was even faster. Taking advantage of a virtually perfect lap, the seven-time champion took the lead by clocking 1min18s056, reinforcing the impression that Ferrari remained one of the strong contenders for pole position.
At Audi, Gabriel Bortoleto also returned for his most important attempt of the morning. The Brazilian improved to 1min19s338 and entered the top 10, finishing just over a tenth behind Nico Hülkenberg, a much more balanced performance than what was shown in the first laps of the session. Even so, Bortoleto was still looking for more confidence in the car and, over the radio, complained that the front end kept wanting to escape in medium-speed corners. Shortly after, the team took advantage of his pit lane pass to slightly increase the front wing angle, trying to reduce understeer before the final run on track.
While Ferrari seemed to take control of the session, McLaren responded emphatically. Lando Norris appeared for his fast lap and surprised by clocking 1min17s939, reclaiming the lead with a comfortable advantage. The time was even more impressive because it was achieved using used tires, a clear sign of the excellent pace shown by the British car on the eve of qualifying.
Mercedes also maintained a constant presence among the frontrunners. Andrea Kimi Antonelli again improved his mark, although he remained in third position, while George Russell found a significant performance gain to climb to sixth place with 1min18s541. The balance between McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes became increasingly evident, promising a very competitive qualifying session.
Further back, Liam Lawson entered the top 10 by clocking 1min19s088, while Oliver Bearman and Franco Colapinto also improved their times and moved up in the standings. Carlos Sainz did improve, but again faced problems with track limits and had another lap deleted at Turn 4, remaining far from the top positions.
Gabriel Bortoleto still returned for a final attempt after the changes made by Audi, but could not lower his own mark. Despite this, the Brazilian remained close to Hülkenberg for virtually the entire session, ending practice with signs of improvement compared to the start of the morning.
Another driver who had little track time was Arvid Lindblad. The Racing Bulls car remained on jacks for much of the practice, and the Briton only managed to go out in the final minutes. Even so, he took advantage of the two flying laps he had available to improve his mark and move up one position before the checkered flag.
In the final moments, Hamilton was still improving his own time when he ended up missing the chicane and lost the opportunity to threaten Norris. Hadjar managed to improve, but remained in eighth place, while Antonelli made another attempt without being able to take third position from Hamilton.
With the checkered flag, Norris confirmed his lead in the third free practice session ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The result reinforced the scenario outlined throughout the morning: McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes arrived extremely balanced for the pole position battle, with three different teams occupying the top positions and demonstrating enough pace to also fight for victory on Sunday. Gabriel Bortoleto finished outside the top ten, but showed improvement throughout the session and ended the final free practice with good prospects to seek a spot in Q3 in qualifying, scheduled for 11 am (Brasília time).
Check out the results of FP3 for the 2026 Hungarian GP:
1) Lando Norris (McLaren/Mercedes), 1’17.939
2) Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), 1’18.056
3) Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), 1’18.068
4) Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), 1’18.291
5) Oscar Piastri (McLaren/Mercedes), 1’18.438
6) George Russell (Mercedes), 1’18.541
7) Max Verstappen (Red Bull/Red Bull Ford), 1’18.656
8) Isack Hadjar (Red Bull/Red Bull Ford), 1’18.943
9) Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls/Red Bull Ford), 1’19.088
10) Nico Hülkenberg (Audi), 1’19.160
11) Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi), 1’19.338
12) Pierre Gasly (Alpine/Mercedes), 1’19.723
13) Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls/Red Bull Ford), 1’19.895
14) Franco Colapinto (Alpine/Mercedes), 1’20.055
15) Esteban Ocon (Haas/Ferrari), 1’20.295
16) Oliver Bearman (Haas/Ferrari), 1’20.312
17) Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin/Honda), 1’20.393
18) Lance Stroll (Aston Martin/Honda), 1’20.933
19) Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac/Ferrari), 1’21.299
20) Carlos Sainz (Williams/Mercedes), 1’21.406
21) Alexander Albon (Williams/Mercedes), 1’21.513
22) Sergio Pérez (Cadillac/Ferrari), no time
Read more Hungarian GP 2026: F1 Free Practice 3 live from Hungaroring
