McLaren’s British driver Lando Norris has been critical of new rules that have shaken up the sport. Photo: AFP <\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n
World champion Lando Norris topped the times for McLaren ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton in Saturday’s third and final free practice ahead of Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
On a day of dust and heat at the Hungaroring circuit, Norris clocked one minute and 17.939 seconds to beat Hamilton by 0.117sec.<\/p>\n
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli was third-fastest for Mercedes, 0.129 adrift.<\/p>\n
It was the first time this year that a Mercedes had not topped the final practice session ahead of qualifying, confirming how closely-contested this weekend’s racing has been.<\/p>\n
Charles Leclerc was fourth in the second Ferrari ahead of Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren with George Russell sixth for Mercedes ahead of the Red Bulls of four-time champion Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar.<\/p>\n
Liam Lawson was ninth for Racing Bulls and Nico Hulkenberg 10th for Audi while the two Aston Martins, using the team’s new B-spec cars, wound up 17th and 18th with two-time champion Fernando Alonso edging ahead of Lance Stroll.<\/p>\n
Following overnight repairs to the track\u00a0 in response to driver complaints about the bumpy surface, the session began with Franco Colapinto leading out in his Alpine in sizzling heat with a track temperature of 52 degrees Celsius.<\/p>\n
After 15 minutes, there were only Valtteri Bottas, Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll, his Aston Martin newly repaired after a suspension failure on Friday, had joined Colapinto.<\/p>\n
Piastri and Leclerc then ventured out.<\/p>\n
Alpine’s impressive rookie Arvid Lindblad was absent, until the final minutes, with a power-unit problem discovered after the team had performed curfew-breaking repairs on Colapinto’s car following his Friday crash.<\/p>\n
A red flag halted the action after 21 minutes when Sergio Perez’s Cadillac came to a halt at turn two, re-named Hamilton this year,\u00a0 brakes ablaze after over-heating.<\/p>\n
After a five-minute pause, the action resumed with Antonelli and Verstappen joining the fray.<\/p>\n
With 35 minutes gone, Antonelli was 20th, his best lap erased for exceeding track limits but after pitting he went second and then top.<\/p>\n
The Italian had rediscovered his vim and his Mercedes was much improved overnight.<\/p>\n
Norris responded with a faster lap before Ferrari sent both cars out on new soft tyres with 10 minutes remaining.<\/p>\n
Hamilton, showing pure pace, took command, only for Norris to drive the first lap under 1min 18sec and edge Hamilton by a tenth of a second.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
McLaren’s British driver Lando Norris has been critical of new rules that have shaken up the sport. Photo: AFP BUDAPEST: World champion Lando Norris topped the times for McLaren ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton in Saturday’s third and final free practice ahead of Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix. On a day of dust and heat at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/pg12-four-col1772968824-0\/pg12-four-col1772968824-0-640x480.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t