Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Vettel leads Hamilton by just 0.081s in final Italian GP practice

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel set the pace in final practice for the Italian Grand Prix, but Formula 1 title rival Lewis Hamilton was less than a tenth slower ahead of qualifying

Hamilton held a narrow edge in the early part of the session, before Vettel and his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen improved, but the Mercedes driver was able to split the Ferraris on his final runs.

The top three was covered by just 0.173s around the Monza circuit going into this afternoon's qualifying session.

Early-morning rain was replaced by sunshine and the track was almost completely dry by the time FP3 started, although there were reports of minor damp spots under the trees in the middle of the circuit.

As lap times improved Raikkonen hit the front on a 1m21.399s as the frontrunners conducted their first qualifying simulations on supersoft tyres.

Hamilton then managed to sneak ahead of Raikkonen by 0.007s despite a slower middle sector.

Vettel failed to challenge after flat-spotting his front-left tyre with a big lock-up into the first chicane, but hit the front when the second and final batch of runs on fresh supersofts took place in the final 20 minutes.

He leapt to the top on his first flying lap on fresh rubber, a 1m21.035s, then improved massively on the second attempt to a 1m20.509s.

Raikkonen made it a Ferrari one-two as he posted the fastest final sector to lap 0.173s slower in response.

Hamilton then split the Ferraris with a 1m20.590s to wind up just 0.081s slower than Vettel, who Hamilton leads in the championship by 17 points.

Valtteri Bottas was adrift of the lead trio in the second Mercedes, lapping six-tenths off the pace and closer to the Red Bull of Max Verstappen in fifth.

Verstappen's Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was only eighth-fastest, which let Kevin Magnussen's Haas and Esteban Ocon's Racing Point Force India to sneak into sixth and seventh.

Charles Leclerc finished the session ninth in a Sauber that has a fixed rear wing following its DRS dramas on Friday, with Romian Grosjean completing the top 10 in the second Haas despite hitting traffic on his final runs.

Leclerc's team-mate Marcus Ericsson was a busy man as he bid to make up for the track time he lost thanks to his massive DRS-induced shunt in second practice.

Ericsson completed 25 laps, more than anyone else, on his way to the 16th-fastest time, but did not suffer any further problems thanks to Sauber's fix.

But the session did include a further DRS drama, as Nico Hulkenberg returned to his Renault garage with the DRS still activated on his car.

That proved the end of his session as the team investigated the cause.

Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps
1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m20.509s - 18
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m20.590s 0.081s 14
3 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m20.682s 0.173s 16
4 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m21.112s 0.603s 18
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 1m21.388s 0.879s 15
6 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1m22.011s 1.502s 15
7 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 1m22.055s 1.546s 16
8 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 1m22.310s 1.801s 15
9 Charles Leclerc Sauber/Ferrari 1m22.313s 1.804s 17
10 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m22.357s 1.848s 16
11 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m22.486s 1.977s 13
12 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso/Honda 1m22.631s 2.122s 20
13 Carlos Sainz Jr. Renault 1m22.737s 2.228s 15
14 Sergey Sirotkin Williams/Mercedes 1m22.778s 2.269s 20
15 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 1m22.860s 2.351s 19
16 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 1m22.882s 2.373s 25
17 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Renault 1m22.892s 2.383s 23
18 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Renault 1m22.987s 2.478s 16
19 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1m23.149s 2.640s 10
20 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Honda 1m23.164s 2.655s 19

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article First impressions of Ferrari's new man at the helm in Formula 1
Next article Formula 1: Williams rejects Mercedes gearbox switch

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe