Lewis Hamilton beat Nico Rosberg to the fastest time in final practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix, but the pair are poised for a close battle in qualifying as Rosberg closed the gap to his team-mate to just 0.098s.
In second practice Rosberg was over 0.7s off Hamilton, but appeared to resolve his balance issues with set-up changes overnight. The gap between the two means a single missed apex could see pole position go either way, but it is likely to be a Mercedes-only affair with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel 0.889s off Hamilton in the third.
The only slight weakness shown by the reigning world champions was a problem for Rosberg at the end of the session as he lined up to complete a practice start. The car stalled as he went through the launch procedure and he had to climb out and walk back to the Mercedes garage. Following the teams two bad starts at Silverstone three weeks ago, Mercedes will be keen to get to the bottom of the problem in time for tomorrow's race.
Kimi Raikkonen finished the session down in 16th after a water leak meant he did not get to run the soft compound tyre at the end of the session. It is yet another minor setback for the Finn, but unfortunately typical of his season so far. Red Bull's strong weekend continued, with Daniil Kvyat in fourth place and 1.218s off the pace, ahead of an impressive lap time from Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat.
Force India returned to the track after missing FP2 due to concerns over Sergio Perez's suspension failure in FP1.The team believes it now understands the problem and made tweaks to prevent a repeat overnight. The drivers had to alter their usual run plans in order to gather long-run data on the soft tyre, but despite having the disadvantage of completing his quick lap early in the session when track conditions were not at their peak, Nico Hulkenberg still managed the sixth fastest time.
Fernando Alonso finished in eighth place for the second practice session in a row as McLaren looks as though it has a realistic chance of securing a spot in Q3. Williams could be a threat if it ups its pace, but with Valtteri Bottas in 14th and Felipe Massa in 17th it may be that the team is genuinely struggling to get the tyres switched on in the same way that it struggled at Monaco, which has similar circuit characteristics.