Latifi beats Leclerc in final Hungarian GP F1 practice

Nicholas Latifi beat Friday dominator Charles Leclerc by six tenths to top a rain-affected final Formula 1 practice session ahead of qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Key moments

• Latifi six tenths clear
• Leclerc second and Albon third
• Vettel crashes late on
• Mercedes struggles for tyre warm-up

Heavy rain in the morning threatened to curtail FP3 but the rain reduced before the session started, meaning drivers took to the track just moments after the scheduled start time.

Championship chaser Leclerc was the first driver out on track and his early 1m43.364s on the wet tyres stood at the top of the timesheets for the majority of the session.

That was before FP3 was halted when retiring four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel nosed his Aston Martin into the barriers at Turn 10 with less than 10 minutes left on the clock.

🔴 We have a red flag 🔴

Seb has spun off into the barriers at Turn 10 – he's ok, just bruised pride#HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/nxBBJs5B06

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 30, 2022

The session resumed with four minutes remaining and the track conditions were the best they’d been throughout FP3.

Latifi – who scored his first F1 points at the Hungaroring last year – led the queue of cars as the session resumed and his second flying lap beat everybody else.

His 1m41.480s allows the Canadian, who will likely exit F1 at the end of 2022, to top an F1 session for the very first time.

That was 0.661s faster than Leclerc’s best effort and almost nine tenths clear of his team-mate Alex Albon who made it two Williams cars in the top three.

Championship leader Max Verstappen was fourth but 1.7s adrift of Latifi while George Russell rounded out the top five in a session where the Mercedes cars struggled for tyre warm-up in the wet conditions.

Alpine’s Fernando Alonso was sixth fastest ahead of his fellow countryman Carlos Sainz.

Lando Norris, Vettel and Kevin Magnussen in the upgraded Haas rounded out the top 10.

Lewis Hamilton was 11th in the other Mercedes while Sergio Perez was 20th and slowest of all, almost seven seconds slower than pacesetter Latifi.

Practice 3 Results