Sainz keeps Ferrari on top in Italian GP final practice

Carlos Sainz upheld the Tifosi's spirits in Saturday's final practice, the Ferrari driver topping the session once with a 0.086s small cushion over Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

Traffic in FP3 led to a few dodgy moments for several drivers, but Lewis Hamilton was able to slot in second, just ahead of Charles Leclerc in fourth position.

Behind the top four, Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso and George Russell rounded off the top six, while yesterday's FP2 runner-up Lando Norris was a lowly P17.

• Italian Grand Prix Free Practice 3 - Results

All Tifosi eyes were on Ferrari as the field took to the track for the final dress rehearsal before qualifying, with the local crowd hoping the Scuderia could uphold the pace displayed by Carlos Sainz in FP2 on Friday.

It was no surprise to see Lance Stroll out early as the session kicked off after the Aston Martin driver was sidelined from yesterday's second practice – which was his only session – following a fuels system issue.

Perez, running on the soft tyre, led the early times until Norris knocked the Mexican off his perch, but ten minutes in, Verstappen popped to the top with a benchmark lap of 1m21.838s.

Mercedes also opted to bolt on the softs on its cars at the outset, which helped Hamilton slot into third, while Verstappen pushed out his advantage, over Perez, to over half a second.

While Sainz kept Ferrari among the top four in the first 20 minutes of the session, Leclerc remained constrained to the second tier of the midfield, the Monegasque suffering a decent amount of bouncing on the back straight onboard his SF-23.

As the session reached its halfway mark, Kevin Magnussen upped the pace to go third quickest behind Red Bull's leading duo.

Meanwhile, Alex Albon showed his hand on the medium tyre, the Williams driver propelling himself up to an impressive second, 0.427s adrift from Verstappen.

Nico Hulkenberg was hard-pressed to emulate Magnussen's earlier effort, but the German's hot lap was good enough for seventh, just aheah of both McLarens.

With less than 15 minutes to go, Mercedes turned it up a notch with Hamilton overhauling Verstappen by 0.234s as the Briton went top while Russell snatched third, with both drivers running on the softs.

But Verstappen responded with a 1m20.998s to reclaim the lead, to which Hamilton radioed in to his crew to admit "I don't know how to find that half a second".

However, with just minutes to go, there was a roar from the grandstands when Sainz went quickest by 0.086s.

In the Red Bull garage, Perez ended his running prematurely due to a leak spotted on the Mexican's RB19. Not the best way to conclude his session with just two and a half hours to go before qualifying.

Meanwhile, Sainz was noted for causing a collision with Piastri at the first chicane, an unusual incident perhaps rooted in a miscommunication on the Ferrari pitwall.

The session thus concluded with Sainz remaining ahead from Verstappen, Hamilton, Leclerc, who improved in the final minute of FP3, and Alonso who rounded off the top five.

Further back followed Russell, the Haas duo of Magnussen and Hulkenberg, Albon and Perez.

It was worth noting that AlphaTauri rookie Liam Lawson impressively concluded his practice ahead of Yuki Tusnoda, albeit by just a thousandth of a second, while both McLaren drivers were sat in the lower tier of the field with Piastri and Norris respectively P14 and P17.

Alpine's Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly were also among the laggards in 18th and 20th position.

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