Lewis Hamilton has topped final practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix in a promising session for Daniel Ricciardo.
Hamilton headed Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg at the chequered flag but it was at the other end of the timesheets that provided the greatest interest.
Ricciardo sat 18th at the end of the session, just over a second off the outright pace by more than three-tenths clear of his Scuderia AlphaTauri team-mate, Yuki Tsunoda.
The pair had spent much of the session looking at race pace, before switching focus to qualifying simulations.
That suggested little between the pair, before a late lap from Ricciardo moved him clear of his Japanese colleague.
In his first weekend for the team, it’s a promising performance for the eight-time race winner, though one that must still be taken with a grain of salt.
Practice had been a straightforward affair, a welcome change from the weather-affected opening day of running.
There was no threat of rain, officially there was a zero percent chance, with the track temperature north of 45 degrees.
Even still, it wasn’t enough to tempt teams out on track; some headed out but most only to complete an installation lap inside the opening 10 minutes.
Others remained in the garage, the McLaren pair among them, as they saved the few sets of tyres they had available.
That had become a point of contention, with drivers only given 11 sets of rubber, down from the 13 they’d normally have.
With three sets needed for qualifying, preserving the balance was therefore imperative, and left teams having to balance their bank of rubber versus the need for track time.
There was no consensus as to which tyres to use, since all three compounds had a degree of relevance.
Red Bull fitted medium rubber to its cars, Max Verstappen faster than Sergio Perez in the opening 15 minutes, the pair split by 0.08s, and 0.8s clear of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon in third.
The Frenchman had used a set of soft tyres, as had team-mate Pierre Gasly in fourth.
When McLaren sent Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris out, they also had the red-walled tyres fitted, the Australian managing the third best time of the session, though 0.471s away from Verstappen’s 1:18.478s.
Behind Verstappen at the top of the standings, it was a competitive session with Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu, Lando Norris, and Sergio Perez all within a tenth of the Dutchman.
Piastri in sixth was only 0.12s away from the pace after 25 minutes.
However, neither Red Bull had bolted on a set of soft tyres, unlike their rvials whose best laps had come on the red rubber.
The top 18 were covered by 1.9s, though neither Scuderia AlphaTauri drivers had set representative times.
Both Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo were clearly on high fuel runs during the opening half of the session, logging laps on the medium compound tyres to set times more than five seconds away from the outright pace.
Tsunoda broke that mould when he switched to the hard rubber, rising from 19th to 18th in what amounted to a Qualifying 1 simulation.
That was followed by Ricciardo, who went almost 0.3s faster than his Scuderia AlphaTauri team-mate in a lap that offered a great deal of promise in the context of the Australian’s F1 return.
A second simulation lap from Tsunoda saw him go 0.2s faster than his previous best.
After a cool down lap, Ricciardo too went for another push lap, setting a personal best opening split.
He as quicker in the final third too, but a mistake in the middle part of the lap saw him drop time and fail to match his previous best.
It was a mistake worth about 0.3s, which would have left him narrowly ahead of Tsunoda.
With 23 minutes to run, Fernando Alonso went fastest with a 1:18.350s.
It was a time 0.128s faster than Verstappen’s earlier best, though set on the soft tyres versus the mediums that were on the Red Bull.
Ricciardo rose to 18th by the end oft he session, his best a 1:18.828 – a time that will most certainly see him eliminated from Qualifying 1 but saw him encouragingly competitive against his team-mate.
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