The third free practice sessions (FP3) of the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix have now concluded. Let’s review together the classification and the key events that took place during this final hour of practice before the weekend’s climax.
Formula 1 returned to the track for FP3 at the Hungarian Grand Prix, moving the event towards the crucial qualifying and race moments. Here is the final classification and a detailed summary of the last session, which finished just moments ago at the Hungaroring circuit.
The on-track action started immediately with the McLaren drivers completing a single lap to “clean” their hard tires. This procedure is a strategic move in preparation for the race, which several teams continue to perform despite Pirelli reporting very few benefits from this tactic. Although there was some early track activity, only Franco Colapinto posted a timed lap on the soft red tires initially.
With forty-five minutes remaining in the session, the second driver to set a timed reference was Kevin Hülkenberg, positioned between the two Alpine cars. Shortly after the first 20 minutes of running, the session intensified as drivers began pushing harder. George Russell set the first noteworthy time, placing himself ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. McLaren responded quickly, though they did not create a large gap; Oscar Piastri took P1 by a narrow margin of 72 thousandths of a second ahead of Russell. Meanwhile, Lando Norris had a quiet start but moved up to fifth place, positioned between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
Several drivers then made repeated attempts to improve their times. Among them, Charles Leclerc significantly improved his lap time to move into P1, despite a slight mistake at turn 12 that wiped out much of the advantage he gained.
Second half of the session
With less than 30 minutes remaining until the end of FP3, McLaren strengthened its position with Oscar Piastri posting a fastest lap of 1:15.871, closely followed by Lewis Hamilton. The Ferrari driver improved his time markedly compared to the previous day, indicating increased confidence in his SF-25 car. McLaren held both first and third positions with Lando Norris in P3 on his second flying lap, creating a classification where Ferrari and McLaren were separated by just two tenths of a second.
However, on their second attempts, the two McLaren MCL39 cars surged ahead of everyone else by a remarkable margin. Oscar Piastri recorded a 1:14.916 lap time, beating his teammate Lando Norris by a mere 32 thousandths of a second. The two Ferrari cars remained the closest challengers but were still around four tenths behind, with Charles Leclerc leading that group, followed by Lewis Hamilton.
Full FP3 results:
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