Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen resumed their F1 rivalry in final practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix by setting the two fastest times of the weekend to date.
Following their incident at the British Grand Prix which sparked a major debate, the seven-time F1 champion goes into qualifying at the Hungaroring with the upper hand over the Red Bull driver - but only marginally.
Hamilton set a time of one minute 16.826secs in the qualifying simulation runs at the end of the hour-long session, with Verstappen just 0.088s adrift.
Following early morning rain that played a part in cleaning up the track, the heat of Friday again prevailed, hitting a high of 28 degrees centigrade, leading to the track soaring to 60 midway through.
Hamilton's opening lap on soft tyres 15 minutes into the session was complicated by oversteer through a handful of corners and a time that was 1.5s down on Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas' best in FP2 of 1:17.012
In comparison, Verstappen, and in particular Bottas, hit the ground running from the start with laps in the mid-1:17s.
Bottas later improved to a 1:17.055s shortly before Mick Schumacher brought out the red flags 17 minutes from the end of the session with a heavy shunt.
Schumacher slid off the track at speed at turn 11, crunching the rear and left-side of his Haas into a tyre barrier.
The young German driver also crashed out in FP3 in Monaco, which resulted in him missing qualifying.
Via a radio message, Schumacher said of his crash that "I know what that means", suggesting the team is unlikely to rush the repairs and he will again sit out qualifying.
After an eight-minute delay, and with just nine minutes remaining, the rest of the field headed out on soft tyres for final qualifying simulation runs.
There was a moment of consternation in the pit lane when Antonio Giovinazzi was released into the path of Aston Martin's Lance Stroll, leading to the Canadian clipping the front wing of the Alfa Romeo.
With the stewards investigating, it is almost certain Alfa Romeo will be hit with a penalty for an unsafe release.
On track, Verstappen momentarily hit soft spot before being usurped by Hamilton, with Bottas unable to improve and settling for third quickest.
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, who required a power unit change overnight - incorporating a new engine, MGU-H and traction control - finished fourth quickest ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc as the Scuderia showed form after a disappointing Friday session.
Both drivers, however, were almost seven-tenths of a second down, suggesting a three-way fight for pole position between Hamilton, Verstappen and Bottas.
McLaren's Lando Norris was almost a second down in sixth, with Red Bull's Sergio Perez seventh and 1.091s down, suggesting he will not be in a position to push the Mercedes pair and assist team-mate Verstappen.
Daniel Ricciardo pushed his way into the top 10 after a Friday in which he felt he was a couple of steps behind, with Alpine's Fernando Alonso and Stroll completing the top 10, with the latter 1.224s back.
Yuki Tsunoda racked up the laps after his crash at the end of FP1 which he saw him miss all but the last few minutes of FP2, with the best of the Japanese driver's 25 being a 1:18.461s for 14th quickest.
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