Lando Norris ruins Ferrari control with tenacious FP3 display

Lando Norris pinched top spot in FP3 at the Hungarian Grand Prix from Ferrari, beating Lewis Hamilton's best effort by a tenth of a second.

Kimi Antonelli fared much better in the third and final hour of practice at the Hungaroring after a difficult second session, making it three different constructors in the top three.

The Scuderia, McLaren and Mercedes all looked in close competition, with the three teams locking out the top six places, ahead of the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar.

Liam Lawson continued his impressive weekend, staving off the looming threat of Audi. The two R26s were tenth and P11, respectively.

There were promising signs at Aston Martin, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll settling into P17 and P18, ahead of the Williams drivers and two Cadillacs.

Check out the full report from FP3 in Budapest below!

First 30

As is customary in F1, there was a slow start to FP3 with Franco Colapinto — eager to make up for lost time after missing FP1 and half of FP2 — having the whole track to himself for the first seven minutes or so.

Lance Stroll, keen to recover from his own absence in the final hour of running on Friday, joined the Alpine soon after.

Back in the pits, Arvid Lindblad's VCARB 03 was on its jacks, with Racing Bulls making changes to the power unit. Team principal Alan Permane confirmed the Faenza-based squad noticed something it didn't like when it was fired up in the morning, but did anticipate the British driver would get some running in before the end of the session after a precautionary power unit change.

Just before the quarter-hour mark, Oscar Piastri became the first frontrunner to venture out on track, with soft tyres strapped to his MCL40.

Whilst still some way off the pace seen in FP2, the Australian set the first vaguely representative time of the session, with a 1:19.918, with the two Ferraris filing in behind in short order.

Minutes later, Lando Norris in the sister McLaren brought the benchmark down significantly, setting a 1:19.062, with Isack Hadjar slotting in second with a time three tenths slower.

Having missed the opening 20 minutes of track action with his Cadillac undergoing work at its rear, Sergio Perez's session lasted only one corner before a strange failure on his MAC-26 brought out the red flag.

The six-time grand prix winner did well to keep it out of the wall, and he promptly pulled over around the outside of Turn 2 (recently named Hamilton).

When the session resumed, the British Ferrari driver put his SF-26 top, but could only go just quicker than Norris' time.

Second half

Into the final 30 minutes of the session, Leclerc brought the marker down significantly with a 1:18.668, a time that would stand uncontested until the last quarter of an hour.

Antonelli had his first effort deleted for track limits, something that has plagued the F1 drivers' championship leader of late, but when he did get his Mercedes hooked up in the last 15 minutes, he was able to take over four tenths off Leclerc's best time.

Piastri slotted into second soon after, equidistant between the young Italian and the Ferrari driver. But for the second time in the session, it would be Norris to fire the biggest — or fastest — warning shot, taking half a tenth off Antonelli's lap.

Verstappen did not have his clearest run, but much of the late attention went further down the order, with Alonso putting his Aston Martin into P11.

Unsatisfied with letting McLaren lead proceedings, even for one session, both Ferraris re-emerged with under 10 minutes to go on fresh soft rubber.

Hamilton put in a 1:18.056, but his compatriot in papaya still had pace in hand, moving the lap times into the 1:17s for the first time all weekend; Leclerc could only go fourth, three-tenths back.

Outside the top five, Russell continued to struggle in his Mercedes, over half a second adrift of his team-mate in third.