Monza FP3: Hamilton tops but stalked by Vettel

Lewis Hamilton's blistering form at Monza continued as he set the fastest time in the final free practice session of the Italian Grand Prix, and chasing hard was Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari who managed to split the Mercedes duo for the first time this weekend.

Hamilton's best lap time of 1:24.544 was a quarter second up on Vettel, who in turn was a couple hundredths of a second up on Rosberg.

The result will no doubt infuse the Ferrari tifosi with hope that they could witness an upset in qualifying and perhaps even in the race.

Behind the Ferrari, on the timing sheets, were a brigade of Mercedes powered cars including Rosberg, and also Williams pair of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa in fourth and fifth respectively, and the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado in sixth.

Notably the gap to the works Mercedes duo, which a day earlier was well over a second, dipped comfortably below the one second mark and thus setting the stage for an intriguing contest at the high speed Monza track, popularly known as Temple of Speed.

Kimi Raikkonen was seventh, but almost half a second adrift of Ferrari teammate Vettel's best time.

Next up, in eighth, was Force India's Sergio Perez, with Sauber's Marcus Ericsson in ninth and Romain Grosjean in the Lotus rounding out the top ten.

None of the four Renault powered cars were in the top dozen, and best in the one hour session was Max Verstappen in the Toro Rosso albeit down in 16th.

[highlight ]Italian Grand Prix, Free Practice 3 - Saturday, 5 September 2015[/highlight]