Hungarian GP: Romain Grosjean fastest in final practice for Lotus

The Lotus driver surged to the top of the times six minutes from the end of the session, his best of 1m20.730s coming during a flurry of quick times set on the soft tyre inside the final 10 minutes.

Fernando Alonso was second for Ferrari, ahead of McLaren's Sergio Perez, who ended up in the barriers with just minutes remaining after spinning at speed on the approach to Turn 11.

Having set the pace during the first two practice sessions, Sebastian Vettel was just fourth fastest in free practice three.

The Red Bull driver spent the majority of the session working on a long run on the medium tyre, and was sitting 19th before improving with a soft tyre run right at the end.

Felipe Massa was fifth, slotting in ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg, Jenson Button and Adrian Sutil.

Kimi Raikkonen missed out on a top 10 spot, finishing 11th after complaining about a lack of rear grip.

Grosjean's pace was not limited to the soft tyre. Earlier in the session, he was one of the pacesetters on the medium tyre, going fastest 18 minutes into the session.

But in the end it was Hamilton who led the way on the medium tyre.

He first jumped to the top 26 minutes into the session with a 1m22.266s, before lowering his best time to a 1m21.942s, the fastest that was set on the harder of the two compounds.


Pos  Driver               Team                  Time        Gap      Laps
 1.  Romain Grosjean      Lotus-Renault         1m20.730s            20
 2.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari               1m20.898s   +0.168s  13
 3.  Sergio Perez         McLaren-Mercedes      1m21.052s   +0.322s  10
 4.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault      1m21.125s   +0.395s  27
 5.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari               1m21.151s   +0.421s  14
 6.  Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes              1m21.158s   +0.428s  19
 7.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault      1m21.254s   +0.524s  17
 8.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes              1m21.356s   +0.626s  23
 9.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes      1m21.499s   +0.769s  15
10.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  1m21.519s   +0.789s  20
11.  Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus-Renault         1m21.589s   +0.859s  17
12.  Pastor Maldonado     Williams-Renault      1m21.646s   +0.916s  19
13.  Paul di Resta        Force India-Mercedes  1m21.963s   +1.233s  21
14.  Nico Hulkenberg      Sauber-Ferrari        1m21.964s   +1.234s  21
15.  Daniel Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m22.180s   +1.450s  18
16.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m22.423s   +1.693s  19
17.  Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Renault      1m23.028s   +2.298s  16
18.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham-Renault      1m23.975s   +3.245s  21
19.  Charles Pic          Caterham-Renault      1m23.987s   +3.257s  19
20.  Jules Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth     1m24.298s   +3.568s  20
21.  Max Chilton          Marussia-Cosworth     1m25.122s   +4.392s  20
22.  Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari        no time set          2