F1 Italian GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3
Saturday's opening action from the 16th round of the 2024 Formula 1 season
Lewis Hamilton ended Friday as the fastest driver but had the McLaren and Ferrari drivers hot on his heels, as Red Bull languished outside the top 10 with both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
Final practice gets under way at 11:30 BST with qualifying at 3pm BST.
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Norris takes his turn to go fastest now, lowering the benchmark to a 1m20.787s, only to be instantly beaten by Sainz's 1m20.742s. How dearly the Spaniard would love a win here on his final outing at Monza for Ferrari.
Leclerc now winds in a purposeful 1m21.171s to move into fourth spot, while Hamilton is captured absolutely hammering the kerbs at the first chicane. His Mercedes resembled something of a skateboard there.
Ominously, Verstappen improves too and is just 0.063s slower than McLaren's Australian despite running on the medium.
But Russell doesn't keep his place at the top of the timesheets for long. Piastri missed out on topping FP2 yesterday with a slide at Ascari, but the Australian makes no such mistake today and becomes the first man to dip into the 1m20s bracket to go fastest on a 1m20.887s.
Sainz and Leclerc don't trouble the 1m21s bracket however and nestle in at the tail end of the top 10 as Russell becomes the new pacesetter on a 1m21.169s using medium tyres.
Here's what the partisan home fans are here to see. Both Ferraris are out on soft tyres.
Magnussen being out early, while most others kick back, is no coincidence. Remember, it was the Dane who triggered the red flags in FP2 by crashing his Haas at the second Lesmo.
Using the medium tyres, Max Verstappen knocks Magnussen off his briefly-held perch. A 1m21.560s is the new time to beat, which Sergio Perez comes close to doing before nestling in 0.102s back in second.
Magnussen posts a 1m21.774s to go quickest. Well, he's the only one to set a time. For reference, Lewis Hamilton's benchmark time from FP2 was a 1m20.738s.
We've yet to see a representative time posted, but that may be about to change shortly as Kevin Magnussen winds up a lap on the soft tyres.
Red Bull was conspicuous by its absence from the top of the timesheets in FP2 yesterday, but there were several reasons for that. And it's long run pace gave plenty of reasons to be cheerful. For more on what transpired yesterday, and the context behind the times, look no further than Alex Kalinauckas's deep dive here.
We saw very little running on the hard tyre yesterday as teams sought to find their feet on the newly resurfaced track. That appears to be changing today though, as Bottas, Alonso and Stroll have all bolted on the white side-walled Pirelli tyres.
Bottas was inspired during FP1 yesterday and led for much of the way before ending up fifth. The Finn usually goes well at Monza - don't forget that in 2021 he was fastest in qualifying here, but wasn't credited with pole position due to the rules of the period. At the time, pole was given to the winner of the sprint race.
Don't let's forget, we have a session to cover. And it has now begun, with Valtteri Bottas the first to leave the pits.
Elsewhere, James Vowles has apologised for comments made yesterday in which he said that part of its decision to take Franco Colapinto as Logan Sargeant's replacement for the rest of the year was because the other candidate, Mercedes reserve Mick Schumacher, was not "special". You can read his clarification here.
The move is not one that is without risk for Mercedes, given Antonelli's tender years and his sole outing on a grand prix weekend thus far ended up in the barriers. Alex Kalinauckas weighs up the factors involved in its decision to advance the 18-year-old's career so rapidly, and what may happen next.
First off, Andrea Kimi Antonelli has finally been announced as a Mercedes driver next year, replacing Lewis Hamilton. In a media conference following the reveal, team boss Toto Wolff said he came up with the idea five minutes after learning of Hamilton's departure for Ferrari. You can read that story here.
Welcome everybody to Autosport's live text coverage of Free Practice 3 from the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. It's been rather a busy morning hasn't it? Without further ado, let's dive in.
By: Autosport Staff
