Italian GP FP3: Hamilton leads Mercedes one two, Verstappen in trouble
F1 NewsSaturday, 31 August 2024 at 13:35
Lewis Hamilton topped the final practice session for the 2024 Italian Grand Prix ahead of teammate George Russell, as Max Verstappen struggled.
Mercedes' strong form from Friday seemed to continue as they controlled the proceedings of FP3, while Ferrari, albeit a bit behind also showed decent pace.
As for McLaren, they were fourth and fifth with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, as McLaren do not seem to have the edge the enjoyed at Zandvoort one week ago.
Max Verstappen, on the other hand, did not enjoy a strong session, and will have a challenge on his hands in qualifying a few hours later.
Again it was a close session, as the top ten drivers were within eight tenths of a second from each other, which means we might witness some surprises in Q1 in qualifying, usually a session that features some messy situations as drivers squabble to get a tow.
With Carlos in seventh, the surprise came from Williams as Alex Albon was eighth fastest, with rookie teammate Franco Colapinto behind him in ninth, three tenths apart. Not bad from the Argentinian driver.
Buildup towards FP3
Saturday started at Monza with the news everyone was expecting, Kimi Antonelli would replace Hamilton at Mercedes for the 2025 Formula 1 season.
And so with this bit of news behind us, we can now go back to covering the weekend, who's hot and who's not, as Red Bull are yet to show their hand in qualifying trim, while their race pace was decent as McLaren seemed to be sandbagging up to now.
Mercedes appear to be in good form, and Ferrari are not as bad as they were, the jury still out on their latest upgrade for the SF-24 as they will be gunning for a decent result in front of the tifosi. The Reds have shown some decent race pace as well.
Leclerc complained a bit about the car in FP1, but then seemed happier with it at the end of the day.
The newly surfaced Autodromo Nazionale Monza as thrown a curved ball at the teams and drivers in terms of tyre degradation, so good to see who can get on top of the Pirelli rubber.
We also have to mention the revised Parabolica that seemed to catch out several drivers throughout Friday, drivers even claiming they are learning a new track since the new kerbs were put in along with the resurfacing.
FP3 Session Highlights
The conditions were clear at the start of FP3 despite having some clouds, but the temperatures were high, with track temperature at 45 degrees Celsius, the ambient temperature at 31 degrees.
Valtteri Bottas led the pack out of the pits on Medium tyres, so did teammate Zhou Guanyu, as well as Verstappen and Sergio Perez in the Red Bull.
Fernando Alonso, Lando Stroll, and Daniel Ricciardo were on Hards, while Kevin Magnussen - who crashed in FP2 - was on the Softs.
Those were the only drivers out with the green light, but ten minutes into the session, the action picked up as more driver went out on track.
The drivers went on setting their lap times with a mix of Soft and Medium tyres, and as the session entered its second half, more qualifying runs of Softs were underway.
Aston Martin, both Alonso and Stroll appeared to struggle when getting out of Turn 2, the AMR24 kick out struggling to put the tyres down.
Piastri seemed to be pushing, as he went wide into the gravel at Turn 7, but did not back off and went on to finish his lap.
Verstappen also had a moment at Turn 7, losing the rear of his RB20, going wide on the kerbs, just minutes after Piastri.
Albon seems to be in good form, and halfway into the session was top of the timing screens.
But soon Leclerc puts in a hot lap on the Soft tyres to go faster than Albon, but teammate Sainz then goes even faster to take the top spot.
In the meantime, the Red Bulls and Mercedes were still running on their Medium-tyre runs. That was 20 minutes from the end.
Leclerc then improves and went fastest from Sainz.
Mercedes suffered from hot seats on Friday, and it seems that issue was not sorted out, as Russell complained about that to his team as he head back into the pits.
15 minutes from the end, Norris bolts on a new set of Soft tyres and sets out on hot lap, but could only manage second fastest, 0.036s behind Leclerc.
Piastri followed suit, and went second fastest, dropping his teammate to third bettering him by 0.010s.
Ten minutes from the end, Russell, Hamilton, and Verstappen start their qualifying simulations on the Soft tyres. Hamilton went fastest, then Russell second fastest, while Verstappen was only good for sixth.
Verstappen reported that his car doesn't turn in the low and medium speed corners.
Russell complained about his battery as well the balance of his W15.
Perez had an off moment when on his hot qualifying run and had to abort. That was at the chicane Turn 4 and 5. Stroll also lost his Aston Martin at the same place moments later.
Verstappen had another shot as a fast lap, but his effort meant he remained in sixth place, as the triple F1 Champion seems to be heading into qualifying on the back foot.
After the chequered flag was waved and as the cars were heading back to the pits, Haas asked Magnussen to park his VF-24 on the side of the road with an issue.
How they finished
Hamilton posted a 1:20.117 to go fastest, already faster than the pole time registered by Sainz back in 2023 (1:20.294).
The seven-time F1 Champion was 0.093s faster than teammate Russell who was second and 0.016s faster than Leclerc in third.
Piastri and Norris were fourth and fifth respectively separated by 0.010s, the Australian 0.135s off the pace.
Verstappen was 0.251s away from Hamilton and down in sixth, 0.095s ahead of Sainz who was seventh fastest.
Albon was 0.479s off the pace in eighth and around three tenths ahead of Colapinto in ninth while Nico Hulkenberg completed the top ten in the Haas.
Italian GP FP3 Classification
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