FP3: Hamilton leads Verstappen and Bottas in final Hungary practice after heavy Schumacher crash

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BUDAPEST, HUNGARY - JULY 31: Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Mercedes AMG Petronas

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton set a marker for qualifying with the fastest time in final practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen in second and Valtteri Bottas in third. The session was briefly red-flagged for Mick Schumacher's late crash into the Turn 11 barriers.

Schumacher lost the rear-end of his Haas coming out of Turn 11 with 17 minutes remaining, resulting in a high-speed accident from which he emerged winded, apologetic, but unhurt – his presence in this afternoon's qualifying session now hanging in the balance as the Haas team assess the damage to his car.

READ MORE: 5 things we learned from Friday practice for the Hungarian GP

Bottas held the benchmark of 1m 17.428s midway through the session, leading Verstappen by 0.082s and Hamilton by seven-tenths before drivers scrambled to set times following the red flag for Schumacher's crash – when Hamilton rallied to set the ultimate fastest lap of 1m 16.826s and finish 0.088s ahead of Verstappen to leave Bottas third and 0.229s down.

Verstappen, whose Honda power unit which was in the car for his Silverstone crash and has been given the all-clear to run this weekend by the team, was around a second faster than seventh-place team mate Sergio Perez.

Hungary 2021

Practice 3 results

PositionTeam NameTime
1HAM1:16.826
2VER+0.088s
3BOT+0.229s
4SAI+0.671s
5LEC+0.694s
View Full Results

On Friday night, Ferrari broke curfew for the first time this season to change Carlos Sainz's engine. No penalty for the Spaniard who finished fourth in FP3 and 0.02s ahead of team mate Charles Leclerc in fifth.

McLaren's Lando Norris was left with a feeling of consternation after a "tough" FP2 session on Friday and finished sixth in FP3, while team mate Daniel Ricciardo was eighth, the Red Bull of Perez splitting the McLarens.

TECH TALK: A close look at the cooling solutions the teams are using to counter the heat in Hungary

Alpine's Fernando Alonso finished ninth, ahead of Aston Martin's late mover Lance Stroll. Pierre Gasly, 11th after a near miss with Antonio Giovinazzi late on, finished ahead of team mate Yuki Tsunoda, who yesterday clocked fewer laps than Alfa Romeo's FP1 stand-in Robert Kubica, but shrugged off his Friday morning crash to finish 14th.

Esteban Ocon finished behind Gasly in P12 and ahead of Sebastian Vettel's Aston Martin in P13.

FP3 Highlights: 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix

Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen took P15 while team mate Gionvinazzi (P18) was released into the rear of Stroll's Aston Martin in the pit lane after the red flag stoppage, with a financial penalty likely to follow for his team. He will also be investigated for impeding Gasly on a flying lap very late in the session.

George Russell finished 16th for Williams while team mate Nicholas Latifi was under three-hundredths of a second behind in P17.

Schumacher's crash, which brought out a seven-minute stoppage, left him 19th on the leaderboard and in doubt for qualifying. Haas team mate Nikita Mazepin rounded out the standings, three seconds off the top.

Clear skies are set to grace the Hungaroring for qualifying at 1500 – join F1.com for live coverage and up-to-date reaction from the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.

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