The Silver Arrows pair were flattered to cheat a bit by stepping out on soft tires in the last 15 minutes of the session to feel the benefit of the track’s evolution and climb to the top.
Polister’s progress in Budapest and his colleague Lewis Hamilton fluctuated Carlos Sainz until a third Lando Norris Drove Daniel Ricciardo McLaren also escaped from Charles Leclerc.
Aston Martins headed first as part of the frenetic opening of the hour like every pub Alex Albon And the Pierre Gasly appeared and just Fernando Alonso Opt against solid tires.
Unsurprisingly, on faster media, Alonso quickly set the pace at 1m 17,662 seconds before Verstappen found another four-tenths on the slower white-walled rubber moments later.
after, after Mick Schumacher The front right closed through Turn 11 chicane to overtake the gravel despite the extremely slow entry speed, the pacemakers having had similar misfortune.
Alonso was another one who got past Turn 11 before Verstappen stopped with a car problem.
No sooner had Verstappen moved to the top of the leaderboard with his 1m 14.714 effort on solid tyres, sitting beautifully in just over half a second, his RB18 ground-stopping.
The double waving yellow turned into a virtual safety car and then a full red flag 10 minutes later when the gearbox appeared to malfunction on exiting Turn 2 with a puff of smoke.
The home champion stopped at the exit of Turn 4 before vacating the car that had a new power unit for the last Belgian Grand Prix, which Verstappen won.
Notably, a Red Bull mechanic was given permission to break the seal to change the inclusion of the main shaft lock on Verstappen’s gearbox earlier on Friday morning.
It took the better part of 10 minutes for the session to resume but during the interval, Schumacher was investigated and released for leaving the pit lane under a red flag.
With 40 minutes left on the clock, Hamilton - who ran an old powertrain while the engine was restored from a Spa crash with Alonso - turned weak and led the field to the exit.
But when he sat 15th with 1m 16.937sec on new rubber, Alonso got back to the top on the red-walled Pirellis with a 1m 13.635sec before Norris dropped to 1min 12.929sec.
papaya McLaren Briefly enjoying his time in the sun before, with 33 minutes to go, Sainz climbed to the top in his F1-75, and the Spaniard lowered the benchmark to 1m12.845s.
As the majority of the field switched to running heavier fuels, mercedes It came with a bunch of setup tweaks and used the same downforce-reliant single lap speed of Budapest for faster runs.
Russell was the first to run on soft hardware, with the Hungarian Grand Prix mogul working on the timeline at 1 minute 12.455 seconds to set what would be the fastest time in the session.
Hamilton came out shortly after Mercedes finished winning the W13, and the seven-time champion ran 09.24 seconds off his stablemate due to his best of 1m12,695.
Hamilton did not like himself for many of his competitors, as the Briton indicated steadfastness Kevin Magnussen To Turn 1 and then Leclerc through much of the first sector.
After their complaints came and went, Hamilton was summoned by Sainz - the Ferrari The driver accuses the Silver Arrows pilot of stopping him as he approaches the final turn.
Similarly, Norris and Sebastian Vettel He ran from wheel to wheel brawl on the track late, but all these accidents passed without investigation from the stewards.
With a few late improvements, Russell sat up front over Hamilton when the checkered flag emerged as Sainz ended up driving a Ferrari change, despite the British Grand Prix winner being four tenths of a Mercedes.
Meanwhile, Norris led McLaren’s competitive introduction with a fourth in 1m12.929 seconds, ahead of teammate Ricciardo by a tenth and a half.
Meanwhile, Leclerc was ahead of sixth Sergio Perez. The Red Bull driver turned in a chaotic session, locking in and sprinting wide through the famous Turn Three.
Then he was somewhat lucky to keep the RB18 off the wall, with the Mexican running wide through Turn 9 and sliding over gravel to come within inches of ad hoarding.
Alonso drove Esteban Ocon for Alps As Albon completed the top ten, ahead of Schumacher, Lance’s OutingMagnussen and Gasly.
Vettel ended up finishing 15th Zhou GuanyuThe Alfa Romeo The driver remained in the garage for much of the hour as the team used the red flag to change its chassis.
Yuki Tsunoda Run to 17 applicants Valtteri Bottaswhile Verstappen was shuffled to 19th place Nicholas Latifi.