Latifi 0.6s clear of Leclerc in wet final practice, Vettel crashes
FP3 took place in treacherous conditions after heavy rain fell shortly before the start of the session, leaving the Hungaroring soaked. Conditions improved as the rain halted in the closing stages and it was Williams’ Latifi who emerged out on top as he took advantage of the drying track.
Latifi surged to the top of the leaderboard with a late effort on intermediate tyres, having posted a 1m41.480s to finish final practice 0.661s clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who survived a spin coming out of Turn 3.
The same could not be said for Sebastian Vettel, who skidded off into the barriers when he lost control of his Aston Martin through Turn 9. The German, who announced he will retire from F1 at the end of the season on Thursday, caused the only red flag of the session.
Alex Albon ended up third-quickest in the other Williams, ahead of championship leader Max Verstappen, who briefly traded fastest lap times with title rival Leclerc before slipping to fourth and 1.7s down by the chequered flag.
George Russell was fifth but nearly two seconds off the pace as Mercedes struggled with tyre warm up, an issue that has plagued their W13 so far this season. His teammate Lewis Hamilton was only 11th, 3.3s adrift of Latifi’s benchmark.
Alpine’s Fernando Alonso took sixth ahead of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Vettel, whose time was still good enough to keep him ninth despite his crash. Kevin Magnussen completed the top-10 order in his upgraded Haas car.
The weather had brightened up by the end of FP3 but according to the FIA’s weather forecast, there is an 80% risk of rain affecting qualifying, which gets underway at 4pm local time (3pm BST).
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