Lewis Hamilton headlined the final free practice session of Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix weekend, 0.093 seconds clear of Mercedes team-mate George Russell.
In a closely contested session, in which the top six were all within a quarter of a second, the two Mercedes cars displaced Charles Leclerc from the leaderboard’s zenith in their final fresh soft-tyre runs in preparation for qualifying.
In the opening runs, the times swiftly entered the 1m20s bracket, opened by Oscar Piastri on softs, but further improvements continued to emerge; Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Russell, and Leclerc all spent periods on top as the opening 30 minutes closed.
Alex Albon then went fastest after the first half-hour had elapsed, going 0.018s quicker than Leclerc’s benchmark on the soft tyres, before Sainz set a 1m20.463s lap to end the Williams driver’s five minutes atop the order.
Leclerc logged a 1m20.226s on his next effort, a time that looked to be under threat from Norris on the McLaren driver’s next run, but the Briton lost time in the final sector. Piastri then went 0.01s quicker than Norris, subsequently facing a near-tangle with Leclerc on the exit of the second Lesmo.
The Mercedes duo then swept to the top, Russell posting a 1m20.210s before Lewis Hamilton found a tenth on his team-mate to go fastest — Russell reporting that his lap felt «pretty rubbish» by comparison.
Regardless, it was good enough to remain as the second-best lap; 0.016s faster than Leclerc’s third-fastest time.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
The two McLarens were fourth and fifth, Piastri retaining his one-hundredth advantage over Norris, while Max Verstappen was a tenth further back. Verstappen echoed his usual concerns that the «car doesn’t turn in the low-speed, medium-speed» corners, and fluffed his final attempt having struggled through the Lesmos — although capped it off with a fastest final sector. By comparison, team-mate Sergio Perez was down in 18th.
Carlos Sainz was seventh in the order, ahead of the Williams duo; Albon was eighth, while new team-mate Franco Colapinto was 0.3s behind but nonetheless stood ninth in the final order. Nico Hulkenberg was 10th quickest, albeit with the fastest opening sector of the session.
Kevin Magnussen was asked to stop his Haas on track at the end of the session with an unspecified problem, and the Dane pulled up on the run to Ascari.