Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying – F1 LIVE: Latest as Lewis Hamilton looks to challenge Max Verstappen

Follow Mail Sport’s live blog for qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix, as Lewis Hamilton looks to challenge Max Verstappen.

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Bottas improves on his own time to keep his spot at the top… for now.

Bottas with the fastest lap so far. Verstappen and the two Mercedes sit behind him.

Lights out and away we go!

18 minutes for the drivers to set their times.

The cars are leaving the pit lane as we prepare to get underway.

We’re closing in on the first round of qualifying.

Sergio Perez crashed early into the first Hungarian GP practice session to cause a red flag.

After he dipped his left wheels onto the grass going into turn five, his car spun out and smashed into the barrier, leaving the front left of the Red Bull damaged. Track marshals had to remove the car.

The rookie error piles more pressure onto the Mexican with just two races before the summer break after Daniel Ricciardo returned to the grid with AlphaTauri.

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Lewis Hamilton was comfortably the quickest in practice, beating both Red Bulls to the fastest time in final practice.

The seven-time world champion put in a best time of 1:17.811 to finish 0.250s ahead of championship leader Max Verstappen, who was complaining about the stability of his Red Bull and a lack of grip.

Sergio Perez was a further 0.006s back in third in the other RB19.

Qualifying will be using a different tyre format this weekend in Hungary with the introduction of the alternative tyre allocation (ATA).

Teams will be obligated to use the hard tyre in Q1, the medium rubber in Q2 and only the soft compound for the pole position shootout in Q3.

The number of tyre sets has also been reduced from 13 to 11, with three hard sets available and four sets each of the medium and soft.

Netflix’s long boom predictably followed Daniel Ricciardo’s mega-watt smile every inch of his journey back from the edge of Formula One oblivion.

The Australian star of the Drive to Survive documentary returns to the cockpit for AlphaTauri in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix and words of delight tumbled from his mouth in the Hungaroring paddock.

But, one suspects, they will count for nothing if his head is not right.

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Sergio Perez can sense Daniel Ricciardo tap, tap, tapping at his shoulder.

That seemed obvious as the Mexican pirouetted into a tyre barrier in practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Mexican was out of sorts and under pressure even before Ricciardo was drafted in last week at Red Bull’s sister team, AlphaTauri, where he replaces struggling rookie Nyck de Vries. But now he may be fearing the obvious. That if Ricciardo shapes up, which is by no means certain, and he continues to flail, he could be dropped.

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After an entertaining British Grand Prix, F1 returns this weekend with the Hungarian Grand Prix.

There is plenty to look forward to as Daniel Ricciardo returns to the grid with Alpha Tauri.

Mercedes will be hoping that Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will benefit from upgrades. As you would expect, Championship leader Max Verstappen is the favourite in the Hungarian Grand Prix odds.

And welcome to Sportsmail’s live coverage of the qualifying for the Hungarian Grand prix.

The action gets underway at 3pm so stay with us for all the build up.

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