Oscar Piastri edges out Lando Norris in final practice in Hungary

Norris headed both sessions at the Hungaroring on Friday but played second fiddle to his championship rival and McLaren team-mate in the concluding running before qualifying.

McLaren have been dominant all weekend at the last round before the summer break with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc third, albeit four tenths back.

Lewis Hamilton was next up, 0.768 seconds off Piastri’s pace, with Kimi Antonelli fifth for Mercedes and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso sixth.

George Russell took eighth place but Max Verstappen’s troubled weekend continued after he finished way down in 12th.

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The four-time world champion took aim at the handling of his Red Bull as he ended the session 1.2 sec slower than Piastri. Yuki Tsunoda was 19th of 20 in the other Red Bull.

Qualifying for the 14th round of 24 takes place at 16:00 local time (15:00 BST).

Piastri holds a 16-point lead over team-mate Norris in the world championship.

Norris recently said it does not matter if he fails to beat Oscar Piastri to the world championship because “in 200 years we will all be dead”.

The title momentum swung back in Piastri’s favour at last weekend’s rain-hit round in Belgium.

Norris started on pole position but allowed Piastri to swoop past in the treacherous conditions.

Norris was unable to stop Red Bull’s Max Verstappen from taking his fourth consecutive championship last year, but such is McLaren’s superiority, it is team-mate Piastri who has emerged as his sole rival for this season’s crown.

Piastri has six wins to Norris’ four but when asked if he needs to get under the Australian’s skin to land his maiden F1 title, Norris replied: “I don’t enjoy that. In 200 years no one is going to care. We’ll all be dead.

“I am trying to have a good time. I still care about it, and that’s why I get upset sometimes and I get disappointed and I get angry at myself. And I think that shows just how much I care about winning and losing.

“But that doesn’t mean I need to take it out on Oscar. I just don’t get into those kind of things.”