Hungarian GP: Hamilton outpaces Rosberg again in FP3

Hamilton again outpaced his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, both on the medium-compound tyre and the soft-tyred qualifying simulation. His fastest time was 0.098s quicker than Rosberg could manage.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was best of the rest, but the best part of a second slower.

Story of the session

Kimi Raikkonen and Vettel set the early pace for Ferrari, with the Mercedes pair sitting out the first 20 minutes of the session.

Rosberg was the first to run, immediately jumping to the top of the times on 1m25.201s. He lowered that to 1m24.873s on his second flying lap on the medium-compound tyres.

Hamilton beat that at his first attempt with 1m24.747s, before flatspotting his front-left tyre, with the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat almost a second off the Mercedes pace at this point.

Rosberg made several suspension changes during the session, and was first of the frontrunners on the soft tyre. He managed 1m23.095s, but Hamilton beat him again with 1m22.997s.

Rosberg ended his session early when he got out of his car when it stalled at the end of the pitlane after an attempted practice start.

Vettel was third fastest in the session, 0.889s off Hamilton’s pace.

Ferrari’s troubles continued, however, as Raikkonen suffered what his engineer called a “dramatic water leak” that soaked his rear tyres and almost caused him to go off.

Raikkonen didn’t get to run on the soft tyre, which will hamper his chances in qualifying. He ended the session 16^th.

Red Bull disappointed after its strong Friday, with Kvyat fourth – 1.2s off the pace – and Ricciardo only managed ninth after a big moment at Turn 5 ruined his lap.

Carlos Sainz was an impressive fifth fastest in his Toro Rosso, with Max Verstappen seventh in the sister car.

Force India back on track

Both Force Indias were in action today, following Sergio Perez’s big accident in FP1 and Nico Hulkenberg’s subsequent withdrawal while it made revisions to rear suspension wishbones.

The session wasn’t without trouble, however: Perez spun at Turn 1, and a piece of Hulkenberg’s car fell off on the approach to the first corner soon after.

Hulkenberg topped the session following an early soft-compound tyre run, and the lap was good enough for sixth, with Perez down in 15^th.

Fernando Alonso was a solid eighth for McLaren, despite a big moment at Turn 1 on the soft tyres. Jenson Button complained of “very poor” rear grip after making an overnight setup change, and he was 13th.

Romain Grosjean rounded out the top ten in his Lotus, just ahead of teammate Pastor Maldonado.

Williams had a poor session, with Felipe Massa 12^th and Valtteri Bottas 14^th.

F1 - Hungarian GP - Free Practice 3

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
01	L. Hamilton	Mercedes	1:22.997		12
02	N. Rosberg	Mercedes	1:23.095	+0.098	20
03	S. Vettel	Ferrari	1:23.886	+0.889	19
04	D. Kvyat	Red Bull	1:24.215	+1.218	17
05	C. Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:24.326	+1.329	22
06	N. Hulkenberg	Force India	1:24.483	+1.486	30
07	M. Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:24.678	+1.681	22
08	F. Alonso	McLaren	1:24.846	+1.849	16
09	D. Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:24.929	+1.932	12
10	R. Grosjean	Lotus	1:24.941	+1.944	22
11	P. Maldonado	Lotus	1:24.953	+1.956	16
12	F. Massa	Williams	1:25.094	+2.097	13
13	J. Button	McLaren	1:25.229	+2.232	16
14	V. Bottas	Williams	1:25.345	+2.348	17
15	S. Perez	Force India	1:25.393	+2.396	25
16	K. Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:25.661	+2.664	12
17	F. Nasr	Sauber	1:26.060	+3.063	20
18	M. Ericsson	Sauber	1:26.095	+3.098	20
19	W. Stevens	Manor	1:28.757	+5.760	19
20	R. Merhi	Manor	1:28.908	+5.911	20