After a dramatic couple of practice sessions yesterday in Monza, we have a fresh start for the Mercedes team and the final stretch before qualifying later today. Here is what unfolded during FP3 at the 2024 Italian GP.
Session Begins
The green flag was out for FP3 and the first to enter the track was the Sauber of Valterri Bottas, keen to upkeep the impressive speed he displayed yesterday but unfortunately could not match those lap times once again. In regular Aston Martin fashion, Fernando Alonso took his car for a warmup on the hard tyre, aiming to prepare a scrubbed set for later. Kevin Magnussen flew on the first timed lap producing a 1:21.774 which was quickly beaten by Max Verstappen, shaving off 0.2s from the Haas driver’s time. Mercedes wasted no time trying to come back from yesterday’s setback, racking up their flying lap times and producing neck-and-neck speed with the struggling Red Bull team. Lewis Hamilton was seen scraping the newly upgraded floor of his W15 over the large freshly resurfaced curbs.
McLaren’s Benchmark Speed
The McLaren team continued to display the eye-watering speed we have seen from them in recent race weekends with Lando Norris producing a 1:20.864 at the 20 minute mark of the session. The likes of Mercedes and Ferrari were pushing their cars to the absolute limit – to no avail of matching McLarens blistering pace. This dominance has posed a large threat to Red Bull and the team were definitely scratching their heads at these lap times.
The 30 Minute Mark
Ferrari impressed the home crowd overshadowing McLarens times, dropping the Papaya team down to P5 and P6 speed. The upgrades the Scuderia have brought to Monza appear to be very speed and performance focused – the team have gone to great efforts to appease the Tifosi and get their cars back up to the level they used to sit at. After some clean laps, both drivers returned to the garage, warmed up and prepared for qualifying. Another team to keep an eye on for FP3 was Williams, mid season rookie Franco Colapinto seemed to be consistently improving his lap times and his teammate Alex Albon impressively producing a P1 lap time at the halfway mark of the session.
Drivers across the grid were ramping up their speed from yesterday in preparation for the detrimental qualifying session later today. Quali is extremely important for Monza with the last 15 pole sitters taking the win over the last 24 races at the Temple of Speed. Colapinto returned back to the Williams garage after putting his car in P15 with 24 minutes remaining of FP3. Lewis Hamilton was driving the wheels off of his Mercedes, however traffic proved to be an issue and with that, returned to the pits. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc shared an even split of track dominance, spending the most time producing flying laps out of all teams, keen to gather data on the medium tyres performance on this circuit which sat at a temperature of 44 degrees for this practice session.
Soft Tyre Speed
After most teams pitting their drivers at the halfway mark, we saw the majority of the field back onto the track securing their lap times with 15 minutes remaining of the session. Most teams were looking to gather data on the soft compound tyre, as the North Italian climate is known to be unforgiving and blisteringly hot this time of year. Having an idea of tyre performance and degradation will be hugely advantageous for later sessions this weekend. However, we did hear George Russell complain through the team radio that the balance of the car was ‘completely off’, despite setting a speed just 0.093s off of Hamilton’s 1:20.117 which took him to the top of the field with ten minutes remaining in the session. Williams saw success with their FP3 session having both drivers in the top 10 with only 0.3s separating them.
It is important to note that Max Verstappen continued to report drivability issues regarding steering with his car which is detrimental information to the constructors and potentially even drivers championship. The issues Red Bull are facing seem to be opening up a comfortable lead for McLaren in recent race weekends. Both Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez had some trouble navigating the Della Roggia chicane and went straight, this is the second instance in this session that we saw drivers struggling with the new track adjustments.
Under Investigation
A turn seven incident involving Oscar Piastri, Charles Leclerc and Daniel Ricciardo saw a small queue, provoking stewards to investigate Daniel Ricciardo for impeding. Shortly after this incident, we saw Kevin Magnussen being instructed to stop his car in the middle of the track due to an unspecified failure.
In appropriate Monza fashion, all three practice sessions have been rather dramatic. As the chequered flag came down for FP3 fo the 2024 Italian GP, Lewis Hamilton topped the time-sheets however the top five was extremely close, being separated by only a few tenths of a second. Unfortunately, Ma Verstappen was not included in this top five. We will have to see what the Dutchman can do in qualifying later.
Feature image photo credit: Scuderia Ferrari Photo Gallery.
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