Italian GP 2022 FP3 report and highlights: Verstappen tops Leclerc, Perez in final Monza training session

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen set the pace in Saturday’s third and final practice session for the Italian Grand Prix, beating Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and teammate Sergio Perez to take the lead at Monza.

Verstappen clocked a time of 1 minute 21.252 seconds on the soft tires to defeat Leclerc by a margin of 0.347 seconds – Monaco’s first run on the red-marked tire that had been jeopardized by a Variante della Roggia chicane error – with Perez two and-a-half-tenths further.

Read more: 5 things we learned from Friday’s training at the Italian Grand Prix

Verstappen was also the fastest driver on the middle laps – keeping him early in the mix with Leclerc and Carlos Sainz even after the Ferraris switched to softs.

He is organizing an interesting qualifying session later this afternoon, with Verstappen, Sainz and a host of other drivers confirming penalties for Engine and gearbox component changes.

Sainz was next at the other Ferrari – half a tenth of Perez’s – with Fernando Alonso “best of the rest” for Albin in fifth and in an excellent position to take advantage of various penalties.

McLaren’s Lando Norris remained sixth, with Mercedes’s George Russell and Lewis Hamilton seventh and 10th respectively – with Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda flying off and Esteban Ocon Mountains (the latter joining the penalty list with an engine change).

READ MORE: Horner explains Red Bull’s engine penalties at Monza as Verstappen says he’s ‘not worried’ about Ferrari pace

Zhou Guanyu led the Alfa Romeo attack in eleventh place, five places and three tenths faster than his teammate Valtteri Bottas, while the other Alfa Toure from Pierre Gasly finished twelfth.

At Williams, a late driver change saw Nick de Vries get into Alex Albon’s car for FP3 – and the rest of the weekend – after The Thai driver contracted appendicitis.

Rebounding from his Aston Martin run by Sebastian Vettel during FP1, De Vries recovered from a gravel ride at Lesmo 1 to finish 14th fastest, just under a tenth down over Williams regular driver Nicholas Latifi – both looking to secure a place on the 2023 grid.

Daniel Ricciardo trailed teammate Lando Norris by half a second on his way to 15th, ahead of the aforementioned Bottas and Vettel, and Haas Kevin Magnussen (another to make changes to the power unit).

In the back, there were other problems for Mick Schumacher, who spent most of the session stuck in the garage with a clutch problem that surfaced when Haas fired penalties on his engine – also confirmed on his side of the garage.

READ MORE: Albon ruled out of Italian Grand Prix with appendicitis, as substitute De Vries prepares to start F1 race for the first time

This came after the German completed just nine laps on Friday. After stepping down from Antonio Giovinazzi in FP1, Schumacher’s FP2 session was derailed halfway through a power unit pit stop.

Lance Stroll brought up the rear for an Aston Martin, six tenths of his teammate Vettel and 2.5 seconds off the pace set by Verstappen.

Qualification for the 2022 Italian Grand Prix is Scheduled to start at 1600 local time. With penalty shootouts from the likes of Verstappen, Perez, Sainz and Hamilton, who will start on pole position at Monza?