Ferrari are in the hunt for pole position at their home event as Carlos Sainz topped final practice at the Italian GP from Max Verstappen; watch qualifying from 3pm, with build-up from 2:10pm and lights out on Sunday at 2pm - live on Sky Sports F1
Saturday 2 September 2023 14:19, UK
Carlos Sainz underlined Ferrari's status as pole-position contenders at the Italian Grand Prix by topping final practice at Monza.
Sainz was 0.086s ahead of championship leader Max Verstappen and over half a second clear of Lewis Hamilton, suggesting it will be a Ferrari versus Red Bull fight in qualifying later on Saturday at 3pm - live on Sky Sports F1.
Charles Leclerc, who has been second-best to Ferrari team-mate Sainz all weekend, was fourth but set his best lap time on a second flying lap, after initially going wide at the second Lesmo (Turn 7) in the qualifying simulations.
Most of the top drivers took to the track on used softs in the first part of practice, which saw Verstappen leading a Red Bull one-two.
But, the key runs came in the final 20 minutes and Sainz set the fastest time of the event so far with a 1:20.912. However, the Spaniard was given a black-and-white flag for impeding Oscar Piastri at Turn 2 during the session.
Sergio Perez missed the qualifying simulations due to an oil leak, which could prove costly according to Sky Sports F1's Nico Rosberg.
"That's going to be a big setback for Sergio because it's so crucial this practice for qualifying now at the end of FP3 and his fastest lap is now 1.2 seconds off where it could be with that car, so it's going to be so difficult for him to find the rhythm for qualifying," said Rosberg.
"Especially, as we only go on softs at the end of qualifying [due to the Alternative Tyre Allocation rules], so it's going to be quite a challenge for him."
Hamilton appeared to be much happier with his car after Mercedes made changes to his machine overnight to find a better setup, but is still a long way off Ferrari and Red Bull.
George Russell was sixth, behind Fernando Alonso, while the Haas pair of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg were in the top eight.
Liam Lawson outpaced Yuki Tsunoda in the AlphaTauri team-mate battle, with Lando Norris only 17th for McLaren as he failed to put together a clean lap on the softs.
Saturday 2 September
1.10pm: F2 Sprint Race
2.10pm: Italian GP Qualifying build-up
3pm: Italian GP Qualifying
4.45pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook
Sunday 3 September
7.10am: F3 Feature Race
8.15am: F2 Feature Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Italian GP build-up
2pm: THE ITALIAN GRAND PRIX
4pm: Chequered Flag: Italian GP reaction
5pm: Ted's Notebook
