Italian Grand Prix – Free Practice 3: Carlos Sainz repeats his performance before qualifying

The final preparation before the qualifying session started Saturday morning: Max Verstappen remains the clear favorite, regardless of the sessions, but the Ferraris seem to be in a good position, at their home circuit in Monza.

The weather was beautiful for the third free practice session, far from the expected rain risks last week. And to take advantage of it, Sergio Pérez, one of the favorites, quickly took to the track to finally complete a trouble-free session.

A quite varied work on tires was quickly observed: Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, for example, started their session on hard tires, while the Alpines, among others, fitted the soft tires.

Lando Norris set the provisional best time ahead of Sergio Pérez, while Carlos Sainz, with a time of 1:22.662, matched the Mexican’s time. Max Verstappen then attacked the stopwatch on soft tires. Just one lap and the difference was already made: 1:21.838, which is over six tenths faster than Norris. Although, at this stage of the session, drawing conclusions is still a bit premature.

Lewis Hamilton, in trying to push his Mercedes for a fast lap, may have been a little optimistic on the brakes: he went straight at the first chicane. He quickly recovered and managed to secure third place, less than half a second behind Verstappen.

The latter, moreover, made a quite phenomenal difference in the second sector, with the Lesmo bends and the Ascari chicane.

At McLaren, while Lando Norris completed a lap on hard tires, Oscar Piastri took to the track with the red compound tires, managing only the 11th fastest time.

But one man was achieving an interesting performance: Fernando Alonso, who had only used the hard tires, managed a very convincing 6th time, just one second “only” behind Max Verstappen’s 1:21.687. The Spaniard was even able to set the fastest time in the first sector. This could be promising.

If some could note the relative discretion of Charles Leclerc and George Russell, the reason lies in their choice of settings: both men rely primarily on the race to try to perform, sacrificing somewhat pure speed.

Most of the drivers, at almost mid-session, started doing relay simulations, like Max Verstappen. Unlike AlphaTauri, for example: Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson, who are far down in the standings, completed a few fast laps on hard tires. And Kevin Magnussen, on an excellent lap, achieved a very interesting third time, only half a second behind Verstappen.

A track that is improving

Alexander Albon, on his Williams, followed in the footsteps of other drivers to set times on medium tires. And it seems that, despite his doubts about the performance of his car, it’s working well: the Thai driver set the second fastest time, less than half a second behind the benchmark. And he even had the fastest time in the first sector!

Oscar Piastri, also on medium tyres, got a bit too confident at the entrance of the second chicane and had a little spin in the gravel. Too bad for him: he was ahead in the first sector.

The two McLarens, at the start of the final 20 minutes, took advantage of a track almost devoid of competitors to successfully work on their medium tires, which seem to work particularly well on this Monza circuit.

But the track was gaining in performance, the lap times were dropping: Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time with a 1:21.453, despite losing a lot of time in the last sector.

Fernando Alonso finally took to the track on soft tires, setting the 4th fastest time. However, Max Verstappen, determined not to let anyone take the lead, clocked a 1:20.998. This is a blow for Mercedes.

Valtteri Bottas made a small mistake with his Alfa Romeo, while Carlos Sainz, with the Ferrari decorated in WEC style, beat Verstappen in 1:20.912. Charles Leclerc, despite being slightly faster, had to back off. This is sure to reassure the tifosi before qualifying.

No need to insist, Verstappen must have thought: he came into the pits three minutes before the end, before going out for his practice starts. That’s how Ferrari No. 55 kept the fastest time… while noticeably hindering Oscar Piastri.

As for Alpine, things are not going well: Pierre Gasly simply finished last. It’s a far cry from the Zandvoort podium. And Esteban Ocon only managed to finish in 18th place.