The final hour on track ahead of Qualifying saw Williams’s Nicholas Latifi jump to the top of the timesheets on a drying track – a much-needed boost for the Canadian.
His final flying lap managed to beat Charles Leclerc’s best efforts after the Ferrari man led the majority of the final Practice session.
There was a heavy downpour shortly before the start of the session, which made it unclear as to whether it would start on time, but the light at the end of the pit lane went green as scheduled with the Ferraris being the first men to brave the tricky conditions..
Although Ferrari’s Leclerc topped the timesheets for most of the hour, a final four-minute run followed a red flag – triggered by Sebastian Vettel crashing into the barrier – allowing Latifi to get his intermediate tyres flying.
This marks the first time Latifi has topped an F1 practice session, with his 1:41.480 beating Leclerc by 0.6s – however the Williams driver has yet to score any points this season and is the only driver who remains empty-handed.
His teammate, Alex Albon, finished in third – highlighting the promising ability of the Grove-based team in the wet, while World Championship leader Max Verstappen was in fourth when time ran out, even after less running than most on track.
George Russell managed to climb to fifth in the closing stages today, however, Mercedes are struggling to generate tyre temperature in the damp and cooler conditions.
His teammate, Lewis Hamilton was outside of the top ten, landing in 11th after repeating expressing frustration at his team’s performance.
Another team with promising results today was Alpine, and Fernando Alonso, who is always a force to be reckoned with in wet conditions, was sixth for Alpine, ahead of the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.
Closing out the top ten this afternoon was the McLaren of Lando Norris in eighth, Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin was in 9th and Haas’s Kevin Magnussen in tenth.
Qualifying kicks off this afternoon at 3:00 pm Irish time at the Hungaoring
