FP3 - Ferrari rapid again as Vettel completes team's Free Practice hattrick!

Ferrari star Sebastian Vettel has made it three out of three at Monza in Free Practice for the Italians as the German topped the timetable in FP3, setting the four-time champion up nicely for qualifying later today.

The session started ten minutes late after a massive crash in Formula 3 minutes before FP3, with Alex Peroni getting launched by the sausage kerb at the Parabolica. He was okay, but the FIA opted to remove the kerb, which chewed into the 60 minutes of track time for the teams.

Vettel was followed by Max Verstappen in P2, with Valtteri Bottas completing the hypothetical podium. The Finn had exactly the same lap time down to the thousandth as Charles Leclerc in P4.

Interestingly, with the FIA being more strict about exceeding track limits at the Parabolica, a lot of drivers saw their laps scrapped for going off-track, which could prove dramatic in qualifying later today.

How it happened

The first ten minutes of the hour-long session were rather uneventful, as the pitlane was closed. Alex Peroni's massive Formula 3 crash at the Parabolica caused Michael Masi and the marshalls take immediate action, as they decided to remove the sausage kerb at the final corner of the track. Peroni had hit the kerb hard, causing the Australian youngster to take off and fly into the barriers. Luckily, he was okay.

With the shortened session, it meant the 50 minutes of track time were extra busy.

Ferrari set the pace early with a one-two, but as the session progressed, Red Bull and Mercedes turned up the heat. Verstappen took the quickest time on several occasions but was bested by a Ferrari each time, with Vettel eventually beating the Dutchman by three-hundredths of a second.

It won't mean much, though, as Verstappen will likely not run in qualifying as he has a grid penalty. He's not the only one either, with Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly also having penalties for swapping power unit components.

Jumping off the page in FP3 as well were the quick Renaults. Daniel Ricciardo was quicker than Lewis Hamilton as the Aussie took P5, with Hamilton being in a Renault sandwich in P6 as he was slower because of his medium tyres. Alex Albon had a lot of times invalidated by exceeding track limits as the Thai ended eighth. Antonio Giovinazzi and Daniil Kvyat rounded out the top ten.