Vettel leads Bottas in Hungarian GP final practice 

Sebastian Vettel upped the pace as he remained on top in final practice for the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix, pipping Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas by just 0.059s on Saturday afternoon.

The Ferrari driver, who also topped the timesheets in second practice at the Hungaroring, posted a lap of 1m16.170s to lead the way once again in the final 60-minute session ahead of qualifying later today.

Bottas was the German’s nearest challenger in the low-fuel qualifying simulations as he ended the session second-quickest, despite suffering a spin in the closing stages as he pirouetted across the grass and tapped the barriers square on at the exit of Turn 6, avoiding any damage to his car.

Kimi Raikkonen led the early stages but was unable to match the pace of Ferrari teammate Vettel, though he had looked set to improve on his time until a small lock-up heading into the penultimate corner ruined his lap and left him third. 

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton endured a scruffy final practice as he fell behind Mercedes teammate Bottas, with the Briton ending the session some 0.579s adrift. Hamilton had reported vibrations under braking early on in FP3 and struggled throughout, with his Mercedes looking a particular handful to drive as he also spun at Turn 6. 

The Red Bulls had shown promising pace on Friday but dropped down the order on Saturday morning, with Daniel Ricciardo nearly two tenths behind Hamilton in fifth, but around the same margin clear of teammate Max Verstappen. 

It was a strong session for Renault as Carlos Sainz turned in a solid lap to finish seventh - albeit 1.5s off the pace of session-leader Vettel - ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg, who recovered from his issues on Friday to end up eighth. 

Romain Grosjean was just 0.001s behind Hulkenberg’s Renault, with Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly splitting the Haas duo in 10th ahead of Kevin Magnussen. 

Brendon Hartley finished a strong 12th and less than a tenth behind teammate Gasly, while Charles Leclerc put his Sauber 13th and ahead of McLaren’s Fernando Alonso. 

Esteban Ocon was the fastest Force India driver in 15th amid the team’s ongoing off-track financial problems, with Sergey Sirotkin finishing 16th-fastest for Williams.

McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne managed just 14 laps as his team carried out planned set-up changes for the majority of the session, before sending the Belgian back out on track with just 10 minutes remaining as he ended up 17th, ahead of Marcus Ericsson, Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll, who finished bottom of the timesheets for Williams.