Lando Norris said he does not need to “act like an idiot” to beat Max Verstappen to the world championship.

Norris, who saw off Verstappen to finish fastest in practice for Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, has emerged as the Red Bull driver’s closest title challenger, and he could have arrived for the 13th round of the campaign with four consecutive wins had it not been for mistakes by driver and team.

A poor strategy call scuppered Norris’ hopes of winning in Canada last month. The 24-year-old said his sluggish getaway from pole position – where he dropped from first to third – at the ensuing round in Spain denied him another triumph.

Norris then failed to finish in Austria after he collided with Verstappen as they duelled for the lead.

At the British Grand Prix, Norris led before pitting a lap too late for slick tyres. He overshot his marks when he stopped and crossed the line a disappointing third.

In doing so, Norris lost further ground to Verstappen and trails the Dutchman by 84 points at the midway stage of the sport’s longest ever season.

But when it was put to the McLaren driver that he is not ruthless enough to dethrone Verstappen, he replied: “I don’t care what people say.

“I’m a nice guy and I try to be respectful in every way that I can. But that has absolutely zero relevance for what happens on track.

“If I want, I can be a lot more of a d*** and act like an idiot, have that persona and make people think that (I am ruthless), but I don’t need to and I don’t want to.

“I still want to make jokes, have fun and laugh. I’m just enjoying my life and it is as simple as that. When I put the helmet on, I will do what I have to do to win. I know what works for me and I will stick to that.”

Norris and McLaren will take great encouragement from their early pace at the slow-speed Hungaroring venue a dozen miles outside of Budapest.

Red Bull have brought a significant upgrade to the penultimate round before the sport’s summer shutdown, but Norris held a healthy 0.243 seconds advantage over Verstappen at the end of the day’s concluding running.

Carlos Sainz finished third for Ferrari, but teammate Charles Leclerc’s session ended in the barriers after he lost control of his car through the high-speed fourth corner.

The Monegasque carried too much speed into the right-hander, propelling him on to the exit kerbs, and then into the metal barriers on the other side of the track.

Leclerc was unharmed in the 160mph accident, but his Ferrari sustained significant damage, and the running was red-flagged for 15 minutes as track repairs were carried out.

Mercedes arrived here in search of a third consecutive win after Hamilton followed Russell’s success in Austria with his first triumph in two-and-a-half years at Silverstone a fortnight ago.

But neither men troubled the top of the time charts in practice with Russell fifth, half-a-second off Norris’ pace, and Hamilton two places behind his team-mate.