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F1 Hungarian GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3 & Qualifying
Minute-by-minute updates of Formula 1 Saturday final practice and qualifying at the Hungaroring
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"These brakes are a bit bad," complains Sainz over the radio as replays show a lock-up into Turn 1.
Sure enough, Hamilton pumps in a lap to go quickest on a 1m18.587s. A few moments of oversteer though for the Mercedes driver as the struggles with bringing the front tyres up to temperature from yesterday appear to still be an issue.
While we're watching Hamilton, Raikkonen retakes top spot on a 1m19.267s. Times are creeping down, don't expect that to hold out for too much longer.
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The first of the big guns now comes out to play, as Hamilton trials a set of the soft compound tyres.
Of course, one driver who won't have to worry about tyre allocation is Tsunoda - who has plenty to use up after his limited running yesterday with just 21 laps completed all day.
Sainz, bedding in his new engine, goes fastest on the medium with a 1m19.443s, a little over a tenth ahead of Raikkonen.
Track temperatures are creeping up - teams are opting to wait for conditions to be more representative of what they will encounter later on in qualifying and in tomorrow's race before burning up tyres and chasing set-up blind avenues.
Now Raikkonen puts his softs to good use by going top on a 1m19.547s. Still just the five cars out on track.
Tsunoda takes over at the top of the timesheets on a 1m20.790s. Behind him, the Haas drivers have improved, but remain the same order with Schumacher ahead of Mazepin.
Tsunoda and Sainz are running on the mediums, while Raikkonen has also joined the fray on soft tyres. The Finn first raced here 20 years ago - on that day, he finished just outside the points in seventh for Sauber.
Also perhaps unsurprisingly, joining his fellow rookies on track in a bid to gain a bit of extra mileage is Tsunoda after he missed almost all of FP2 yesterday. He crashed out of FP1, doing heavy damage to the rear of his AlphaTauri, which he explained felt "nervous" in the high speed corners. Here's the full story: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/tsunoda-alphatauri-f1-car-felt-really-nervous-before-fp1-crash/6639454/
The first flying lap from Mazepin is a 1m25.419s, unsurprisingly beaten by Schumacher's 1m22.804s.
Mazepin heads out on mediums, while Schumacher follows him out on softs.
The first man out of the pits is Mazepin, who had a real struggle yesterday - ending up over two seconds behind Haas team-mate Schumacher. It's not often you see gaps like that in F1 anymore.
Green flag
Green light at the end of the pitlane, FP3 is underway.
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Did you know that today marks the 27th anniversary of the horrific pit fire that engulfed Jos Verstappen's Benetton in the 1994 German GP? Here are the stories of those who were there: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/the-story-behind-f1s-most-iconic-refuelling-picture/6639478/
There's a small chance of rain for this session - 10% - while air temperatures of 26.9 degrees are a fair way down on what we had for FP2 yesterday. Could the weather play a role today?
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With Aston Martins eighth and tenth, sandwiching Lando Norris's McLaren in P9, Ferrari meanwhile languished outside the top 10 with both cars.
Carlos Sainz Jr has also had to take a new power unit after a problem was discovered with the engine he was using on Friday - meaning he'll incur a penalty if he's forced into taking another new unit before season's end.
Here's the full story on Ferrari's worries: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/sainz-forced-to-take-third-ferrari-power-unit-for-hungarian-gp/6639466/
Carlos Sainz Jr has also had to take a new power unit after a problem was discovered with the engine he was using on Friday - meaning he'll incur a penalty if he's forced into taking another new unit before season's end.
Here's the full story on Ferrari's worries: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/sainz-forced-to-take-third-ferrari-power-unit-for-hungarian-gp/6639466/
One of the interesting subplots to yesterday was the pace of the Alpine, with Esteban Ocon sneaking into fourth place ahead of Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull. The Enstone team looks to have strong pace this weekend, with Fernando Alonso just behind sixth-placed Pierre Gasly in P7.
Our intrepid GP editor Alex Kalinauckas spent yesterday evening crunching the numbers, and reckons there's not much to choose between the two warring factions - despite the three tenth deficit Verstappen faced to Bottas in the afternoon. Plus subscribers can read that in full here: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/why-mercedes-is-pleased-to-be-in-the-hungary-hunt-at-a-red-bull-track/6639271/
So what can we expect from today? If you missed it yesterday, Valterri Bottas topped the all-important FP2 session by a whisker ahead of Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, having been pipped by Max Verstappen's Red Bull in the morning.
FP3 gets underway in a little over 15 minutes time, so just time to put on a bit of toast, burn it, make another one, burn it again, then succeed at the third time of asking.
Morning one and all, are we ready for some more Hungaroring F1 action? Good, you've made it to the right place.
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