Italian GP: Lewis Hamilton pips Fernando Alonso by 0.001s in final Monza practice

But it was close. The Briton, who was also fastest in free practice two, beat Fernando Alonso to the top spot by just one thousandth of a second as prospects for a close fight for pole continued to grow.

Paul di Resta was an impressive third fastest in the Force India, which made news of his gearbox penalty all the more disappointing ahead of qualifying.

Hamilton signalled McLaren's intentions early on after the traditional early-session lull, going fastest with a 1m25.508s. Within moments that was challenged first by Sergio Perez in the Sauber, and then Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen.

But by the end of his long run on the hard tyres Hamilton had achieved an impressive 1m24.687s - faster than anything recorded yesterday - to establish himself at the top of the times ahead of his team-mate Jenson Button.

Just after halfway through the session though Alonso weighed in with his own hard-tyre effort - a 1m24.632s lap - that put him top in the Ferrari, while not long after that Rosberg was the first of the frontrunners to switch to the mediums. The Mercedes driver could only manage third however.

Rosberg's team-mate Michael Schumacher, who had been fastest in free practice one, was out of the picture by this stage with yet more reliability issues - this time with his KERS, so the five-time Monza winner instead focused on race set-up.

Into the final 10 minutes and most people switched to their low fuel, option tyre runs. Alonso was the first to fire in a time - 1m24.579s - only to see that beaten by 0.001 seconds by Hamilton.

And that was the way it stayed, ahead of di Resta and Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari. Button was fifth, having failed to get a clear lap towards the end of the session, and Rosberg sixth.

Perez was seventh quickest in the first of the Saubers ahead of Raikkonen, Nico Hulkenberg (emphasising Force India's pace) and Pastor Maldonado in the Williams.

Sebastian Vettel, who has not been a factor for much of the weekend so far, was 11th fastest and the top Red Bull runner. But he ended the session parked down at the second chicane with a technical issue and reporting a 'low battery'.

Pos  Driver              Car                   Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m24.578s            18
 2.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m24.579s  + 0.001s  15
 3.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m24.849s  + 0.271s  20
 4.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m24.909s  + 0.331s  16
 5.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m24.994s  + 0.416s  17
 6.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m25.036s  + 0.458s  22
 7.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m25.160s  + 0.582s  23
 8.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault         1m25.255s  + 0.677s  19
 9.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes  1m25.289s  + 0.711s  20
10.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault      1m25.383s  + 0.805s  18
11.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m25.389s  + 0.811s  21
12.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m25.406s  + 0.828s  17
13.  Bruno Senna         Williams-Renault      1m25.461s  + 0.883s  21
14.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m25.563s  + 0.985s  23
15.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m25.689s  + 1.111s  22
16.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m25.706s  + 1.128s  16
17.  Jerome d'Ambrosio   Lotus-Renault         1m25.973s  + 1.395s  20
18.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m26.003s  + 1.425s  19
19.  Heikki Kovalainen   Caterham-Renault      1m26.657s  + 2.079s  18
20.  Vitaly Petrov       Caterham-Renault      1m27.267s  + 2.689s  16
21.  Charles Pic         Marussia-Cosworth     1m27.454s  + 2.876s  20
22.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth     1m27.728s  + 3.150s  19
23.  Narain Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth          1m28.035s  + 3.457s  23
24.  Pedro de la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth          1m28.384s  + 3.806s  17

All timing unofficial