FP3: Hamilton claims practice hat-trick

Despite struggling in the first half of final practice, Lewis Hamilton came through to take the P1 and the advantage heading into qualifying in Hungary.

Under cloudy skies at the Hungaroring, Mercedes did not have it all their own way at the start of final practice.

Although Nico Rosberg set the early pace, he was edged by Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas, while Hamilton struggled to put a lap together.

Complaining that he “can’t stop the car”, the British racer ran off the track several times before heading back into the pits.

He returned to the action with 20 minutes to go and hit the front on the medium tyres with a 1:25.682.

Soon after the drivers swapped to the soft tyres with Alonso the first to set a time, a 1:24.769.

The Ferrari driver dropped down the order, edged by both Red Bull racers as well as Williams’ Bottas.

However, it was the two Mercedes drivers who fought it out at the top.

Hamilton clocked a 1:24.048 to pull four-tenths ahead of Rosberg, who then set about hauling in his team-mate. He eventually finished 0.047s down on the British racer.

Sebastian Vettel was third quickest, 0.407s down, while Ricciardo and Bottas were next in line ahead of Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen.

Kevin Magnussen in eighth place was the last driver to get within a second of Hamilton’s P1 time.

Times
01 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:24.048 21 laps
02 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:24.095 +0.047 24 laps
03 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:24.455 +0.407 16 laps
04 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:24.678 +0.630 15 laps
05 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:24.685 +0.637 21 laps
06 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:24.769 +0.721 11 laps
07 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:24.818 +0.770 19 laps
08 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:24.867 +0.819 21 laps
09 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:25.162 +1.114 17 laps
10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:25.170 +1.122 19 laps
11 Felipe Massa Williams 1:25.231 +1.183 18 laps
12 Jenson Button McLaren 1:25.468 +1.420 14 laps
13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:25.829 +1.781 22 laps
14 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:25.859 +1.811 19 laps
15 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:25.934 +1.886 21 laps
16 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:26.023 +1.975 23 laps
17 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:26.035 +1.987 19 laps
18 Sergio Perez Force India 1:26.142 +2.094 17 laps
19 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:27.560 +3.512 23 laps
20 Max Chilton Marussia 1:28.083 +4.035 17 laps
21 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:28.605 +4.557 22 laps
22 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:28.821 +4.773 14 laps