F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Hamilton 0.4s clear in final practice at Monza

Lewis Hamilton extended his advantage over team-mate Nico Rosberg during the final practice session for the Italian Grand Prix.

The championship leader - who was in confident mood after improvements on Friday - set the pace with a 1:22.008 on the supersoft tyre, setting the fastest three sectors as he dominated FP3. Rosberg was 0.393s adrift of his team-mate as the two Mercedes drivers completed their qualifying simulations before their rivals.

With the benchmark set, the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull could not get close to the defending champions, with Sebastian Vettel third quickest but some 0.9s off the pace set by Hamilton. Kimi Raikkonen was fourth but some 1.1s slower than the fastest time, as Mercedes showed better performance on the supersoft tyre than it had at the same stage of the weekend in Belgium.

Raikkonen did manage to match his best time with a second flying lap immediately after his first, suggesting Ferrari is still unsure how to best prepare its tyres after Pirelli lowered tyre pressures slightly overnight to 23.0 PSI front and 20.5 PSI rear. It also remains to be seen how much added performance Ferrari's power unit gives when all the engines are turned up in qualifying.

Red Bull struggled somewhat as the two Williams drivers finished the session in fifth and sixth places ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen. Once again Verstappen was on the receiving end of criticism after blocking Rosberg early in the session, and later the Dutch driver complained "the car is moving around way too much".

Sergio Perez and Esteban Gutierrez rounded out the top ten, with Haas looking capable of challenging for a spot in Q3 as one of three teams - including Force India and McLaren - covered by less than 0.2s. Only Gutierrez enjoyed a clean session for the team, however, as Romain Grosjean spun off after just four laps.

Grosjean's spin came at the Ascari chicane, keeping the car out of the barriers but getting stuck in the gravel, ending his session after 12 minutes. Grosjean ended the session 14th despite that error, one position ahead of Jolyon Palmer who went off at Parabolica late on and did well to keep his car out of the barrier.

Having looked quick for sections of the session, the two Manor drivers ended FP3 slowest - with Pascal Wehrlein just ahead of Esteban Ocon - but just 1.3s covered fifth to 22nd as the midfield remained closely matched on performance.

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Pos Driver Team Time Laps
01 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:22.008 14
02 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:22.401 17
03 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:22.946 13
04 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:23.149 12
05 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:23.500 20
06 Felipe Massa Williams 1:23.647 19
07 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:23.709 23
08 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:23.740 21
09 Sergio Perez Force India 1:23.917 20
10 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:24.034 15
11 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:24.041 21
12 Jenson Button McLaren 1:24.104 11
13 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:24.240 17
14 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:24.463 4
15 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:24.533 13
16 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:24.542 20
17 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:24.658 12
18 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:24.715 19
19 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:24.793 12
20 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:24.845 17
21 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:24.893 19
22 Esteban Ocon Manor 1:24.938 15
Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

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