Bottas tops FP3; Sergio Perez third fastest
Budapest, 18 July 2020: Valtteri Bottas topped the final practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix, edging out team-mate Lewis Hamilton by four-hundredths of a second and beating third-placed Sergio Pérez of Racing Point by just under two-tenths of a second as Mercedes-powered cars took the top three spots in FP3, ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the third round of the FIA Formula 1 world championship here.
A busy opening phase, in which teams attempted to make up for the time lost in a wet FP2 yesterday afternoon, saw top spot swap hands regularly with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in P1 early on thanks to a soft-tyre lap of 1:17.639.
Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen then moved ahead with a lap of 1:17.033 set on the medium tyres but Bottas and Hamilton took over with Styria winner Hamilton going quickest with a lap of 1:16.472.
Pushing to match the pace of the Mercedes pair, Verstappen then spun in Turn 12, though he was able to quickly regain control and he managed to avoid damage. Hamilton too went wide at the tricky corner and has his time deleted.
When the move was made to new softs for qualifying runs it was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who made the first move and the Monegasque racer took top spot with a lap of 1:15.781 in a much more competitive looking Ferrari.
Bottas then moved backl to P1 with a good lap of 1:15.437 and after Hamilton was forced to abandon his first attempt and then failed to make significant improvements on his next run, the Finn’s lap remained the benchmark until the chequered flag. H
Sergio Perez put his Racing Point third, which shunted Leclerc to fourth, but the Ferrari driver’s pace was good enough to allow him to split the Racing Points, with Lance Stroll fifth at the flag. Verstappen finished sixth, though the Red Bull driver ended the session 0.647 off Bottas’ pace.
Lando Norris was seventh for McLaren ahead of Vettel and Pierre Gasly, while Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top 10.
2020 FIA Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix – Free Practice 3
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:15.437 18 209.069
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:15.479 0.042 20 208.953
3 Sergio Pérez Racing Point/Mercedes 1:15.598 0.161 16 208.624
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:15.781 0.344 19 208.120
5 Lance Stroll Racing Point/Mercedes 1:16.033 0.596 15 207.430
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1:16.084 0.647 18 207.291
7 Lando Norris McLaren/Renault 1:16.193 0.756 18 206.995
8 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:16.351 0.914 18 206.567
9 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 1:16.453 1.016 20 206.291
10 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:16.508 1.071 14 206.143
11 Carlos Sainz McLaren/Renault 1:16.545 1.108 21 206.043
12 Alexander Albon Red Bull/Honda 1:16.582 1.145 19 205.943
13 Esteban Ocon Renault 1:16.706 1.269 20 205.611
14 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 1:16.847 1.410 23 205.233
15 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1:16.866 1.429 15 205.183
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:17.086 1.649 14 204.597
17 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri/Honda 1:17.292 1.855 15 204.052
18 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:17.496 2.059 20 203.515
19 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:17.527 2.090 25 203.433
20 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1:17.650 2.213 17 203.111
