Italian Grand Prix Practice 3 Round-up

The early news of the Saturday of the Italian Grand Prix was that Pierre Gasly had committed his future to Alpine until the end of 2028, signing a long term deal with the endstone outfit.


Free practice 3 started off with Yuki Tsunoda setting the early pace on the hard tyre with a 1.21.876 before lots of other teams came on track just over 10 minutes in. On the first laps, Hamilton, Piastri, Sainz all locked up and either went over the turn 1 chicane or went really deep into the corner, in Piastri's case. Bearman had a similar issue but had a snap of oversteer and caught it at turn 1 too.

After some faster laps about 20 minutes in, Verstappen set the pace of a 1.20.040, followed closely by Leclerc just 0.014 back and teammate Hamilton P3, 3 tenths back. Leclerc then had a big snap of oversteer into the parabolica, which he neatly caught but could have ended really bad if not.

Verstappen proceeded to better his time with a 1.19.688 and small drama at Ferrari with Hamilton about to start a flying lap, Leclerc suddenly jolted onto the racing line on the entry of the last turn, Hamilton having to avoid his Scuderia teammate. The Brit then put his car P2, 2.5 tenths off Max. Albon, who looked impressive again, went into P3, 3 tenths off.


The mighty McLarens then came out for some fast laps with Norris setting the pace on the softs with a 1.19.331, a decent chunk ahead of Papaya teammate Piastri, 2.5 tenths back with 15 minutes to go.


Isack Hadjar, who is still full of confidence from Zandvoort, found himself P4, with Russell P5, the pair about 3 tenths back. VCARB teammate Lawson had a wide moment at turn 5 and reported to the team to "check the floor". Verstappen abandoned his flying lap as he slightly went onto the gravel at Ascari, diving into the pits at the end of the lap.

As the session went on, the Ferraris were back out and Leclerc had a massive moment, dipping his rear left tyre into the gravel on the exit of Lesmo 2 but still managing P9 in the standings. Bortoleto impressively went P5, followed by Hamilton, Hadjar and Kick teammate Hulkenburg in P8.


Leclerc then had another attempt, absolutely flying in sector 1 and ended up just 0.021 behind Norris at the flag, which will give the Tifosi confidence going into qualifying later today. Haas was accused of "poor execution" by Bearman, who found his teammate Ocon practically parked on the Apex of turn 1 as he started a lap at the end of the session.

Norris leads the pack going into qualifying, followed by Leclerc and Piastri which completes the top 3.

This was the full result of the Italian Grand Prix free practice 3:



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