“Please don't give me hope”: Lewis Hamilton edging Max Verstappen by 0.25 seconds for fastest lap time in FP3 sends F1 fans into a meltdown

Lewis Hamilton recently went ahead of Max Verstappen on the timing sheets on the same compound tire in the third practice session at the 2023 F1 Hungarian GP.

It was one of the biggest takeaways from the sessions, as the seven-time world champion struggled quite a lot in Friday's practice sessions. However, it's safe to say that he and Mercedes managed to drastically increase their performance by setting up the car differently from Friday.

At the end of the last hour-long practice, Max Verstappen was 0.250 seconds behind Lewis Hamilton. Since their rivalry is still fresh in many F1 fans' minds, this was quite interesting to witness.

Furthermore, since Verstappen has been dominating the sport non-stop for several races, seeing Hamilton stay ahead of the Dutchman, even in a practice session, was exciting.

Several F1 publications, including the official F1 Twitter account, mentioned the difference between the two and how Lewis Hamilton eventually became the fastest in the practice session.

There were many fans who reacted to the posts and expressed various emotions. Some were cheering Lewis Hamilton on, while others were begging the page admins not to give them any hope for an interesting fight for the lead, simply because they feel like Max Verstappen will simply dominate with his RB19 F1 car.

Here are some of the reactions:

"Please don't give me hope," one fan wrote.

"Hopefully Merc is back so someone can actually compete with Max," another user wrote.

Usually, the lap times in a practice session don't accurately reflect a car's actual potential. However, the sudden performance gains from the Mercedes driver from Friday to Saturday imply that he could be competitive in qualifying sessions.

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Lewis Hamilton was extremely disappointed with Friday's practice results

Although Lewis Hamilton suddenly topped the timing sheets on the third practice session, he had a horrendous first two sessions on Friday. He was dead last in the first practice session and 18th in the second one.

After the first day at the Hungarian GP, he said (via F1.com):

“It was not good at all. [It] was feeling like the car at its worst today. But we will work on the set up tonight and hopefully tomorrow. Last year it felt terrible at the beginning, and we turned it around with some set up changes. So, we will work on that tonight, and hopefully it will feel better.”

Thankfully, his hope of improving the car by changing the setup became a reality as he dominated the third and final practice session.