Valtteri Bottas extended his scintillating form at Mugello, setting the pace in the final practice session ahead of qualifying for the Tuscan Grand Prix, but with a small margin over Max Verstappen.
The Red Bull charger was just 0.017s adrift from the Finn and emerged as a contender for this afternoon's pole.
But Lewis Hamilton was also snapping at the duo's heels in FP3, the Briton losing just 0.087s over hs teammate.
The F1 paddock got to work on another beautiful day at Mugello, basking in 27°C while track temperatures were an elevated 40°C.
Several drivers - namely Lando Norris who crashed yesterday and Romain Grosjean whose running was limited by engine issues - were looking for a trouble-free sixty minutes to increase their mileage ahead of qualifying.
The Haas driver therefore among the first to hit the track when the lights went green at the tart of the session.
Bottas, yesterday's pace-setter, provided the first timed lap but the action remained subdued during the first 20 minutes, likely as a result of a parsimonious management of tyre allocations.
Gradually, the track filled up, with Leclerc slotting in second behind Bottas, but a soft-shod Hamilton then set a new benchmark at 1m17.415s, the Briton working on sector 1 and sector 2, the two areas where he said he was losing time relative to Bottas.
But both the Finn and Verstappen - running on the mediums - were quick to overhaul Hamilton, with Bottas edging the Dutchman by 0.059s.
But a second push from Verstappen pushed the Red Bull charger ahead, with a 1m17.116s.
Meanwhile, Williams was reporting that a brake problem had prevented George Russell from completing more than a single lap.
On the tyre front, aside from Mercedes and Alfa, the field was exploiting the medium compound which indicated a switch to the softs for some qualifying sims late in the session.
As FP3 entered its final 15 minutes, Bottas reclaimed what has been rightfully his since the start of the Tuscan GP weekend, the Mercedes clocking in with a 1m16.530s, a time that Hamilton approached by 0.083s.
Leading mid-field contenders Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly dialed in the speed on the softs in the closing stages of the session, with the Canadian moving up to third while the AlphaTauri driver was fifth.
As the game of cat and mouse among the front-runners came to a conclusion, Bottas remained ahead but a final effort from Verstappen allowed him to secure P2 ahead of Hamilton, Stroll, Gasly and Perez.
Leclerc nailed a spot among the top ten in P7 while Albon, Kvyat and Grosjean rounded off the first half of the field.
It was a low-key FP3 for both Renault and McLaren teams and the same could be said for Sebastian Vettel who once again lagged his teammate by over half a second, for no apparent reason as the German lined up a lowly P18.
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