Three-in-a-row for Hamilton as Rosberg cuts the gap

Lewis Hamilton completed a clean sweep of practice sessions for the Hungarian Grand Prix by setting the quickest time in the final hour of running.

Hamilton’s best effort of 1’22.997 was almost a full second quicker than he managed yesterday.

Team mate Nico Rosberg was much closer to him than yesterday, however, the pair ending the session separated by less than a tenth of a second. However it wasn’t a trouble-free session for Rosberg: a practice start went wrong as he sat at the pit lane exit, forcing him to climb out of his car with a minute remaining.

Sebastian Vettel was third-quickest in the only Ferrari which was able to set a time on the quicker soft tyre. A water leak sidelined Kimi Raikkonen earlier in the session.

There was little to choose between Ferrari, Red Bull and Williams on the medium tyres, but on the soft tyres Vettel had three-tenths of a second in hand over Daniil Kvyat’s RB11. Carlos Sainz Jnr took fifth for Toro Rosso.

Force India returned to action for the first time since Sergio Perez’s crash in first practice. “The cause of yesterday’s issue was identified and a solution put in place overnight,” said the team after a right-rear suspension failure put Perez’s car into the wall.

Playing catch-up to their rivals, the VJM08s did their soft tyre runs early in the session. Nico Hulkenberg’s was quick enough for the sixth-fastest time. Fernando Alonso also got his McLaren into the top ten.

Third practice visual gaps

Combined practice times