F1 LIVE | Will Verstappen and Hamilton get back in the mix in FP3?

11:30, 02 Aug

Updated: 12:03, 02 Aug

byTobia Elia

Everything is set for the third practice session at the Hungaroring. Follow our live text coverage of FP3 at the Hungarian GP!

LiveBlog

The first day on track at the Hungaroring brought few surprises, with McLaren once again proving nearly untouchable. Charles Leclerc secured third place yet again, appearing set to be the leading challenger behind the McLaren duo.

Once again, as has often been the case this season, Max Verstappen and Red Bull faced a tough Friday on track. The four-time world champion ended the day in just 14th place, more than a second behind the leading pack.

Max Verstappen in Hungary

Difficult day for Verstappen and Hamilton

The Dutchman admitted it had been a tough day and that the cause of the issues was still unclear: “Today was quite tough and it was a low grip feeling in the car and not as balanced as we would have liked.''

''It is difficult to say what the problem was, as nothing really worked, so we will have to investigate overnight as so far it has not been our weekend.''

It was a challenging day for Lewis Hamilton as well, who ended up sixth on the timesheets but still notably off the pace of his teammate once again.

"Today was not a good day for me. Big, big struggle with the balance of the car. A lot different to the previous years I’ve been here.''

"We tried two different things. We tried rectifying some of the balance problems we had in P1, we changed the car in P2, and it’s just very, very inconsistent balance from corner to corner.''

"You can’t say it’s understeer, you can’t just say it’s oversteer, it’s just far from being on rails and very out of balance. But I think it’s probably something to do with maybe tyre temperatures, so we’re going to try to figure that out for tomorrow."

Will Verstappen and Hamilton bounce back today? All that’s left is to wait for the green light — FP3 gets underway at 12:30 local time.