Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Hungaroring, 2020

Bottas edges Hamilton, Perez a tenth away in final practice

2020 Hungarian Grand Prix third practice

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Valtteri Bottas led a close Mercedes one-two in the final practice session before qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

A lap of 1’15.437 put Bottas a mere four-hundredths of a second ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton.

Under overcast skies and on a track surface made slippery by oil and cement dust from the morning’s Formula 3 race, the expected threat to the black cars from Red Bull failed to emerge in the final hour of running. This was despite the team breaking curfew overnight to work on the set-up of their RB16s.

Max Verstappen endured a difficult session: He spun, had gear sync problems and complained about understeer and traffic. He ended up sixth, six-tenths of a second off Bottas’s benchmark.

The gap between him and the Mercedes was filled by the Racing Point pair and, encouragingly for Ferrari, Charles Leclerc. Only Sergio Perez got closer to the Mercedes pair than the Ferrari driver, ending the session within two-tenths of a second of Bottas.

McLaren, AlphaTauri and Renault had a car each in the top 10, with Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari in amongst them. Like Verstappen, Alexander Albon also encountered traffic in his Red Bull, costing him time through the quicker corners in the middle of the lap. He could only manage the 12th-quickest time, half a second shy of his team mate.

Williams can entertain hopes of getting at least one car into Q2 again as George Russell set the 14th-fastest time, leading the Ferrari customers and Daniil Kvyat’s AlphaTauri. Team mate Nicholas Latifi joined Verstappen in spinning at turn 12.

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Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
177Valtteri BottasMercedes1’15.43718
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’15.4790.04220
311Sergio PerezRacing Point-Mercedes1’15.5980.16116
416Charles LeclercFerrari1’15.7810.34419
518Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes1’16.0330.59615
633Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’16.0840.64718
74Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’16.1930.75618
85Sebastian VettelFerrari1’16.3510.91418
910Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Honda1’16.4531.01620
103Daniel RicciardoRenault1’16.5081.07114
1155Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault1’16.5451.10821
1223Alexander AlbonRed Bull-Honda1’16.5821.14519
1331Esteban OconRenault1’16.7061.26920
1463George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’16.8471.41023
158Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’16.8661.42915
1620Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’17.0861.64914
1726Daniil KvyatAlphaTauri-Honda1’17.2921.85515
1899Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’17.4962.05920
197Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’17.5272.09025
206Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes1’17.6502.21317

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Third practice visual gaps

Valtteri Bottas – 1’15.437

+0.042 Lewis Hamilton – 1’15.479

+0.161 Sergio Perez – 1’15.598

+0.344 Charles Leclerc – 1’15.781

+0.596 Lance Stroll – 1’16.033

+0.647 Max Verstappen – 1’16.084

+0.756 Lando Norris – 1’16.193

+0.914 Sebastian Vettel – 1’16.351

+1.016 Pierre Gasly – 1’16.453

+1.071 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’16.508

+1.108 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’16.545

+1.145 Alexander Albon – 1’16.582

+1.269 Esteban Ocon – 1’16.706

+1.410 George Russell – 1’16.847

+1.429 Romain Grosjean – 1’16.866

+1.649 Kevin Magnussen – 1’17.086

+1.855 Daniil Kvyat – 1’17.292

+2.059 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’17.496

+2.090 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’17.527

+2.213 Nicholas Latifi – 1’17.650

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Valtteri BottasMercedes1’16.0891’40.7361’15.437-0.65260
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’16.0031’15.479-0.52457
3Sergio PerezRacing Point-Mercedes1’16.5301’42.4701’15.598-0.93241
4Charles LeclercFerrari1’17.4041’43.7251’15.781-1.62358
5Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes1’16.9671’42.3801’16.033-0.93456
6Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’17.4351’42.8201’16.084-1.35150
7Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’17.5231’46.0001’16.193-1.3349
8Sebastian VettelFerrari1’17.2381’40.4641’16.351-0.88756
9Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Honda1’42.5881’16.453-26.13527
10Daniel RicciardoRenault1’17.2001’16.508-0.69243
11Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault1’17.6751’41.7841’16.545-1.1359
12Alexander AlbonRed Bull-Honda1’17.7271’16.582-1.14549
13Esteban OconRenault1’17.6151’16.706-0.90955
14George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’18.5741’16.847-1.72754
15Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’17.8901’43.3351’16.866-1.02456
16Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’17.7131’17.086-0.62749
17Daniil KvyatAlphaTauri-Honda1’18.2921’47.4221’17.292-157
18Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’18.4251’44.4111’17.496-0.92959
19Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’43.4711’17.527-25.94441
20Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes1’17.9691’17.650-0.31950
21Robert KubicaAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’19.15026

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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7 comments on “Bottas edges Hamilton, Perez a tenth away in final practice”

  1. Here’s an optimistic thought… Mercedes’ behind the scenes deal to give RP their car design backfires, and Perez takes the title!

    1. And hamilton throws his toys out of the pram and quits F1 with his car advantage gone. Also toto shows the middle finger to daimler and takes over Aston martin

  2. Wonder if Stroll will be looking for a new seat shortly? It was okay when he could hide in the midfield, but if this is genuine pace from RP for the next few seasons they could possibly be losing a lot of points

    1. Daddy Stroll owns the team though…

      Bye, Bye Checo. Tnx again for saving all our jobs a year ago, by not collecting your debt! Bye, bye now!

  3. Ferrari changed their rear and decreased the rake angle, seems to be giving them a less horrendous weekend than 2019’s. I’m still a bit worried to see that they are the only sizeable team without a merc style front end. Everyone knows just how quick merc is in Hungary yet RB might still be incapable of beating last years merc. I wonder if RB are looking for a change in the weather, otherwise, RP is just one of their opponents this weekend.

    1. Strange part last year RB was the fastest car in the end so what did they do? Or did the rest improve their car much better?

  4. Mmm but he now has other investors to answer to as well so let’s see. .

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