Norris the man to beat in Hungary as Verstappen and Hamilton struggle

Lando Norris is the favourite to land pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix as McLaren set the dominant times in final practice.

Compared to the searing heat for Friday practice, when air and track temperatures hit 31 and 59 Celsius respectively, conditions for FP3 were noticeably different.

With cloud cover over the Hungaroring, although still considerably warm at 27, the asphalt was 19 degrees lower, offering a window of opportunity for the likes of McLaren and Mercedes.

McLaren, in particular, did not disappoint, as Norris produced a near-perfect lap, setting a time of 1:16.098s, with team-mate Oscar Piastri finishing just 0.044s behind.

As for Max Verstappen, the three-time F1 champion was almost three-tenths down in his Red Bull, leaving the Dutch driver shaking his head after crossing the line, knowing the pace was lacking. A second push lap for Verstappen saw him suffer a major lock-up on the run into Turn 1.

Worse followed, though, for Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes just two weeks after his stunning performance to end his long winless drought by claiming a record-breaking ninth British Grand Prix.

On his qualifying sim run, it was evident Hamilton's W15 was not doing as he wanted it to, with the 39-year-old losing the rear of his car coming out of the Turn 9 right-hander and sliding off the track and onto the grass. Hamilton had to settle for only 10th quickest, 0.688s adrift.

In contrast, George Russell showed he is in the hunt for a position on the top two rows as he was fourth quickest, albeit nearly half-a-second behind Norris, followed by Ferrari's Carlos Sainz.

Ahead of Hamilton, there was a surprising quartet, spearheaded by Daniel Ricciardo in his RB, followed by Williams' Alex Albon, Nico Hulkenberg in his Haas, and Yuki Tsunoda in his RB.

Bizarrely, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc could only manage 11th on the timesheet, with Sergio Perez, on a crucial weekend for the Mexican concerning his future, down in 13th, 0.856s off the pace.

Aston Martin and Alpine are clearly struggling as Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were down in 14th and 15th for the former, and Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon 18th and 20th.

Perez, who revealed his Friday running was more comfortable than he had experienced for a while in an upgraded RB20 - albeit without the new sidepods and engine cover on Verstappen's car - was the first on track.

On the hard compound Pirellis being used for the first time by the team, Perez posted a time of 1:19.159s. Following behind and using the white-striped tyres, Verstappen finished a quarter-of-a-second faster before a subsequent lap saw him set a 1:18.312s.

With the Red Bull duo the only drivers on track setting times over the first 15 minutes, another quick lap from Perez saw him move to within 0.437s of Verstappen, only for his team-mate to lower his benchmark to 1:17.938s.

Ocon was the next to put a time on the board, and although on soft tyres, the 2021 Hungarian GP winner was over eight-tenths of a second down on Verstappen.

It was at that stage that the track action started to ramp up, with the soft tyre-shod Albon setting the fastest time of the weekend with a 1:17.646s.

That, however, was shortlived as Norris, quickest on Friday, became the first driver to post the first sub-77 second lap with 1:16.931s.

At the half-hour point, with Norris at the top of the timesheet, the Briton was almost four-tenths of a second clear of Sainz, followed by Ricciardo, Tsunoda and Piastri, the trio separated by just 0.056s.

Russell, though, quickly put Mercedes in the hunt as he shaved a tenth of a second off Norris' effort.

Behind them, it was evident Red Bull had focused on data gathering on the hard tyres as with 20 minutes remaining, Verstappen and Perez had comfortably posted more laps than any other rivals - 20 and 18 respectively - with the latter slowest, nearly two seconds off.

On old softs, Russell went quicker again with a 1:16.564s, with Hamilton following behind just over two-tenths down.

On new softs, however, Norris raised the bar to smash Russell's time by 0.466s, with the onboard showing a remarkably clean lap bar a twitch in the final corner. Piastri was within touching distance.

Offering a true comparison, Verstappen's first soft-tyre lap of the session saw him finish 0.281s adrift of Norris, but with a few snaps en route that left him frustrated.

In the closing stages, with Norris out front, Hamilton and Verstappen encountered their separate issues to leave their teams with work to do before qualifying.