Max finishes FP3 in GP Hungary in twelfth

Published on 02 August 2025 by Florence Cobben

Max Verstappen has finished the last free practice of the Hungarian Grand Prix in twelfth. The session began more promisingly than the previous practices, but when pushing to set fast laps, the four-time champion grappled with excessive understeer. Oscar Piastri was flying, finishing the session with the fastest time, ahead of McLaren-teammate Lando Norris and Ferrari-driver Charles Leclerc.

The third free practice commenced relatively calmly. Only both McLarens (Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri) and the Aston Martins (Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll) take to the track immediately. All four set a couple of laps, scrubbing their tyres. The first fast lap is set by Franco Colapinto (Alpine) – on a set of soft tyres, he notes a 1:18.006 time.

Seventeen minutes into the session, Max makes his first appearance on track. For his first laps, his RB21 is outfitted with soft tyres. In his first flying lap, the four-time world champion notes a time of 1:16.547. Over the radio, Max tells his team that the balance in the car is better than yesterday. Oracle Red Bull Racing-teammate Yuki Tsunoda runs a different program to Max – his first stint is on mediums, making him about half a second slower than Max in his first flying lap.

Max is accompanied in his late appearance on track by a host of other drivers. First Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) improves on Max’s time, but moments later George Russell (Mercedes) and Piastri also set faster times than the two-time winner of the Hungarian Grand Prix. In Max’s second run, he manages to find places for improvement and reclaims the top spot on the timesheet. The Hungaroring is usually very demanding on the tyres, making it difficult to set two flying laps on the same set of soft tyres. Max manages it anyways. Leclerc, too, sets two flying laps on the same set of soft tyres, albeit with a pit stop inbetween. Despite a small mistake in the third sector, his second run is 65-thousandths faster than the fastest time. Halfway through the session, the Monegasque is ahead of Max and Norris. The top three are within 0.079 distance of one another.

The small distance between drivers is true of the rest of the field as well – with twenty minutes still left to go, Oliver Bearman (Haas) is last, with just 1.295 seconds distance to P1. It’s with 15 minutes on the clock, however, that the qualifying simulations get underway. Piastri is first to set a qualifiyng time – with 1:14.916, he is nearly a second faster than his fastest time. McLaren-teammate Norris is close behind, just 32-thousandths distance to Piastri. Max also takes to the track on a new set of softs, but doesn’t manage to improve on his time. The world champion is not satisfied. “Agh, you try to fix the rear, and it goes into understeer”, he opines.

Aston Martin is the surprise of the weekend. During the second free practice session, the team clinched fourth and fifth place. In just their first runs in third free practice, Stroll set the seventh fastest time, and teammate Alonso set the sixth fastest time. In the closing phase of the session, several drivers still circulate the track, but few fast times are being set. As the flag falls, Piastri has the fastest time, ahead of championship contender Norris. Leclerc, Hamilton, and Antonelli complete the top five. Max finishes FP3 in twelfth place.

Contest Hungarian GP: win a by Max Verstappen signed Red Bull Racing 2025 cap!

Results third free practice Hungary: