Italy – Free Practice 3: Bottas leads ahead of the 2 McLarens

After about fifteen very calm minutes with no cars out, Carlos Sainz decided to take his MCL35 for a lap to finally bring some excitement to this third Free Practice session. Fortunately, very quickly, all the other drivers followed the Spaniard.

To the great surprise of all the spectators at this free practice session, Max Verstappen on medium tires set a time of 1’20’456, placing him ahead of the two Mercedes.

Ferrari engines in great difficulty

We expected it after a very complicated Belgian Grand Prix for all cars powered by the Italian engine block with no single-seaters in the points; the Monza circuit would be even more challenging for Ferrari and its customer cars due to the very nature of the Italian circuit where drivers are flat out on the accelerator for nearly 80% of the lap.

Only 11th in the standings, Charles Leclerc is driving the highest-placed Ferrari-powered car, but the gap of 8 tenths with Bottas’ Mercedes confirms that qualifying and the race will be very complicated for the Italian team. It’s even worse for Alfa Romeo as Räikkönen finished this session in a meager 17th place, ahead of the two Williams cars and his teammate, who is set to experience a very tough home Grand Prix. Fortunately, the tifosi are not present for an already catastrophic weekend.

Mixed day for Renault

While rumors suggest a future name change for Renault to become Alpine, the French manufacturer has shown good pace since this weekend. These performances could be marred by a cruel lack of reliability that saw Daniel Ricciardo drop out of the session after posting the 3rd fastest time. On his side, Esteban Ocon is only 0.5 seconds behind the Mercedes with the number 77. Without mechanical issues, the diamond brand is one of the strong favorites for the last spot on the podium.

It was a quieter session for McLaren, which seems to be regaining some pace. After a very promising start to the season, the performance of the Woking-based cars dropped a bit, but this Monza Grand Prix could allow the British brand to reclaim that 3rd place in the constructors’ championship. Carlos Sainz finished this session 2nd just ahead of his garage neighbor Lando Norris. The battle between Renault, McLaren, and Red Bull is going to be tight this afternoon.

Results of Free Practice 3: