Oscar Piastri fastest of McLarens in last Hungarian GP practice

Photo: McLaren

02. 08. 2025 13:48 CET
icon timer
2 min

Oscar Piastri fastest of McLarens in last Hungarian GP practice

Tereza Hořínková

Tereza Hořínková

News.GP journalist specialising in F1 and MotoGP

Formula 1 f1 f12025season f1hungary f1saturday reports oscarpiastri

McLarens were once again the fastest cars in FP3, this time with Oscar Piastri edging out Lando Norris by a tiny margin.

F1 & MotoGP news to your inbox every day.

The final practice session before qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix began quietly, with only a few laps completed early on. The first timed lap came from Franco Colapinto, who set a 1:18.0 on soft tyres for Alpine. That benchmark was soon beaten by Lance Stroll, who went almost half a second quicker on mediums in his Aston Martin. Yuki Tsunoda then found another half-second and moved to the top.

Max Verstappen joined the session on soft tyres and quickly took over first place, going 0.475 seconds quicker than his teammate. After calling his car “undriveable” on Friday, Verstappen was looking to rebuild trust in his Red Bull before qualifying.

As Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes switched to softs, the session came alive. Oscar Piastri jumped to the top with a time of 1:16.240, going 0.072 seconds faster than George Russell. Lando Norris, however, had a disrupted run due to traffic and was four tenths off the pace in fifth place.

Lewis Hamilton, attempting to join the fight at the front, ran wide at Turn 1 and had to abandon his lap. Charles Leclerc, on the other hand, made no such mistake. He went fastest in sectors 1 and 2 and took over the top spot, only for Piastri to retake it shortly after with the first lap in the 1:15s.

With 15 minutes left, Piastri raised the bar again, improving by a full second. Norris responded with a strong lap, setting the fastest time in sector 3, but he came up just short, missing the top spot by only 0.003 seconds.

Verstappen was unable to match the McLarens after a messy lap. Frustrated, he complained: “You try to fix the rear and then it ploughs into understeer.” Tsunoda was also unhappy, calling on Red Bull to “wake up” after a delta time error on his dash.

Hadjar had a close call near the end of the session, spinning into the run-up to the final corner after taking too much kerb. Luckily, he avoided the wall and no red flags were needed.

Leclerc managed to cut McLaren’s advantage to four tenths, but Norris couldn’t improve on his final run with six minutes to go. With no further changes, the session ended with McLaren on top again.

Piastri finished first with a time of 1:14.916, just 0.033 seconds ahead of Norris in second. Leclerc was third for Ferrari, almost four tenths behind, with Hamilton fourth, three tenths slower than his teammate.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli was fifth for Mercedes. Fernando Alonso continued his strong weekend in sixth for Aston Martin, followed by Lance Stroll in seventh. George Russell placed eighth, while Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg completed the top ten for Sauber.

logo-newsgp logo-instagram logo-linkedin logo-whatsapp

Tereza Hořínková

Tereza is a dedicated sports journalist and mass media student, who has been passionate about the motorsport world since young age. Her work focuses on the stories on and off the track, while making motorsport feel accessible and exciting for every kind of fan.

To the topic

F1 & MotoGP news to your inbox every day.

logo-newsgp
Information

icon F1 and MotoGPF1 and MotoGP news

icon articlesNew articles every day

icon worldNews from around the world

icon reportsReports from races

logo-newsgp logo-instagram logo-linkedin logo-x logo-whatsapp logo-youtube

F1 & MotoGP news around the globe

Contact

NewsGP s.r.o.
Nové Sady 988/2
602 00, Brno, Czechia
IČO 22343776
European Union

info@news.gp


We have established partnerships with circuits, organizers, and official partners. As we do not collaborate directly with the owner of the Formula 1 licensing, it is necessary for us to include the following statement:

This website is unofficial and is not associated in any way with the Formula 1 companies. F1, FORMULA ONE, FORMULA 1, FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, GRAND PRIX and related marks are trade marks of Formula One Licensing B.V.