Valtteri Bottas spearheads Mercedes one-two but Racing Point a threat for qualifying

Hungarian Grand Prix

Bottas spearheads Mercedes one-two but Racing Point a threat for qualifying

The Finn was just 0.042s quicker than Hamilton

Ian Parkes

Saturday 18 July 2020 13:06

Racing Point suggested it could be a threat to Mercedes in qualifying following an eye-opening final practice session ahead of Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix.

Although it was a Mercedes one-two in the 60-minute session at the Hungaroring, with Valtteri Bottas edging out Lewis Hamilton by just 0.042secs, Sergio Perez finished just 0.161s behind the Finn.

For Ferrari fans, there was reason to be cautiously optimistic, with Charles Leclerc fourth quickest and 0.344s behind Bottas' best lap of one minute 15.437s.

Article continues under video

Following the lack of running on Friday afternoon, with FP2 hit by rain, there was no stampede out of the garages come the start of FP3 due to a few spots in the air.

Once that cleared after about 15 minutes, every car took to the circuit to get some meaningful running in ahead of qualifying, although there is further rain forecast at some stage in the afternoon.

With all drivers taking to the faster soft tyre, it became an issue of trying to find a clean lap given the volume of traffic.

Hamilton and Bottas initially traded fastest laps before the six-time F1 champion became the first driver this weekend to dip under 76 seconds, clocking a 1:15.984s.

With 20 minutes remaining the track cleared before Ferrari returned for a qualifying simulation run, and while Vettel was almost four-tenths of a second behind Hamilton, Lecerc managed to go 0.203s quicker than Bottas to temporarily sit top of the timesheet.

That was soon eclipsed, though, by Bottas who posted a time that remained unbeaten as Hamilton could only get to within 0.165s of his Finnish team-mate on his first run.

At his second attempt, the 35-year-old set a personal best in the first sector and purpled the second, but a slight error in the third meant he finished 0.042s down.

Behind Perez and Leclerc, Lance Stroll in his Racing Point was fifth quickest, 0.596s adrift.

For Red Bull, it was a tricky session as Max Verstappen spun early on in exiting out of turn 12, while the team also had to change the RB16's front suspension prior to the Dutchman winding up sixth quickest, 0.647s off the pace.

As for Alex Albon, he complained of "weird vibrations" at the start of his laps at one point, suggesting it was coming from his front-left wheel, and never really hooked up his car, leaving him a lowly 12th, 1.145s down.

In between the pair were McLaren's Lando Norris and Vettel, followed by a strong showing from AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo in his Renault, with Carlos Sainz 11th on the timesheet in his McLaren.

There was positivity for Williams' George Russell as he finished 14th fastest, 1.410s down, but with team-mate Nicholas Latifi bringing up the rear, 2.213s adrift.