Charles Leclerc P7, Carlos Sainz P8 – Hungaroring final practice report

Welcome back to our coverage of the 2023 Formula 1 Hungarian GP weekend. It is qualifying day at the Hungaroring but we entered Saturday with no real idea of the true pecking order after peculiar Friday practice sessions.

After Practice One was disrupted by rain and two red flags, Practice Two saw varying run plans to normal with teams using their tyres sparingly with them having two fewer dry sets due to the Alternative Tyre Allocation qualifying format being trialled this weekend.

Charles Leclerc ended Friday top of the timesheet for Scuderia Ferrari while both Red Bulls and Mercedes were outside of the top 10 in the final standings. So would Practice Three now reveal a clearer picture of the pecking order ahead of Qualifying this afternoon?

As mentioned, each driver has two fewer sets of dry tyres this weekend, having a total of four sets of soft tyres, four sets of medium tyres and three sets of hard tyres overall.

Away we went for Practice Three with the track temperature at 44 degrees Celsius. We saw a more conventional practice session, with the top teams using two new sets of tyres. This meant we would get a good indicator of what the pecking order is. Sky Sports F1’s Anthony Davidson warned that there was a tailwind currently blowing at Turn 11 at the Hungaroring. That is where Oscar Piastri went off yesterday and damaged the floor of his McLaren. Drivers needed to be a little careful on that part of the circuit.

Max Verstappen did a 1:18.478 to set the early benchmark pace on the medium tyres. That was still eight tenths slower than the fastest time in P2 from Charles Leclerc yesterday. Most drivers were just getting up to speed with these much warmer conditions. And after just a few minutes, we saw Carlos Sainz getting out of shape at Turns 2 and 3 in the Ferrari: “I think I’m just struggling with the wind,” he said over team radio.

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Sergio Perez reported that his “tyres are not cooling down” as he goes wide at Turn 2. His engineer Hugh Bird replied: “This is what we are going to have to live with in Qualifying.” Sergio Perez was on the mediums as well, currently in second place just 0.080s behind Max Verstappen. We know how valuable tyres are this weekend, so Kevin Magnussen wasn’t too pleased with the rather heavy locking he gave to a set of softs on his Haas.

Oscar Piastri went into third on this first Qualy sim on the soft tyres: it was a purple middle sector for the Australian but he ends up 0.471s behind Max Verstappen. Esteban Ocon split the two McLarens in fourth place, with Lando Norris in fifth. Not much to separate Alpine and McLaren this weekend at the Hungaroring track.

With 22 minutes to go until the final free practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix, there was a new pace-setter in Budapest as Fernando Alonso went to the top on a 1:18.350 on his soft tyre run. The times were still slower than yesterday due to the warmer temperatures. More Qualy sims were expected from the Red Bulls, Mercedes and Ferrari drivers, just as Charles Leclerc came onto the radio to report a lack of traction for his Ferrari. Along with Red Bull and Mercedes, the Ferraris had yet to do any soft tyre running at this stage of FP3. Charles Leclerc was in P16, while team-mate Carlos Sainz was last. It was still pretty tricky to gauge exactly what was going on out there!

A few moments later Lando Norris went fastest on the medium tyres by 0.268s. That was a stunning lap from the McLaren driver, with two purple sectors to end the lap. But soon after, to the top went Lewis Hamilton with a 1:17.811 on the softs. The Mercedes man went fastest in Sectors 1 and 2, while his teammate George Russell went fourth.

It’s worth remembering that track limits are not being monitored during practice, but will be in Qualifying later. This was George Russell exceeding them on his flying lap, meaning that would be wiped out. It could play a big role in the drama later this afternoon.

After failing to better Lewis Hamilton’s time, Max Verstappen was expressing his dissatisfaction over a lack of grip for the RB19, while Sergio Perez went third, just 0.013s behind Verstappen but was 0.263s down on Hamilton.

The Ferrari’s were about to do their qualifying simulations on soft tyres, but Carlos Sainz had a slight issue in the form of a tear off from his helmet stuck on his rear wing.

Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz attempted to improve their laps on used softs. The Mexican improved his time slightly but stays third and Carlos couldn’t improve. The chequered flag was out and it was Lewis Hamilton fastest in FP3. Unlike yesterday, you could definitely read a lot into that as everyone completed a Qualy sim.

Results from final practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Round 11 of the F1 2023 world championship.

FP3
POS	DRIVER	NAT.	TEAM	TIME
1	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes	1m17.811s
2	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing	1m18.061s
3	Sergio Perez	MEX	Bull Racing	1m18.067s
4	Nico Hulkenberg	GER	Haas	1m18.077s
5	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren	1m18.082s
6	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes	1m18.119s
7	Charles Leclerc	MON	Ferrari	1m18.190s
8	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Ferrari	1m18.234s
9	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Aston Martin	1m18.350s
10	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Alfa Romeo	1m18.489s
11	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin	1m18.536s
12	Zhou Guanyu	CHN	Alfa Romeo	1m18.544s
13	Alex Albon	THA	Williams	1m18.592s
14	Oscar Piastri	AUS	McLaren	1m18.598s
15	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas	1m18.649s
16	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Alpine	1m18.776s
17	Logan Sargeant	USA	Williams	1m18.814s
18	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	AlphaTauri	1m18.828s
19	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Alpine	1m18.979s
20	Yuki Tsunoda	JPN	AlphaTauri	1m19.156s