Max Verstappen dominates Free Practice 3 at Monza – L’Équipe

Max Verstappen knows he won’t be able to start on pole in the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, due to his five-place penalty for an engine change, but the Dutchman still prepared for qualifying in the best possible way , setting the fastest time in the third free practice session at Monza. The reigning world champion and Championship leader concluded the one-hour session with a time of 1’21″252, relegating the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who will not be penalized on the grid, to just over three tenths (1’21″599). Gasly finishes in 12th place Another Red Bull – Ferrari duo follows, with Sergio Perez (10 penalty places) third in time, 59 hundredths behind his teammate, ahead of Carlos Sainz, who will be relegated to the back of the grid, to 64 hundredths. The best of the others is Fernando Alonso, driving for the Alpine, with a time of 1’22″306, just over a second behind Verstappen. The Spaniard is ahead of Lando Norris (McLaren), George Russell ( Mercedes), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri, back of the grid), Esteban Ocon (Alpine, 5 penalty places) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), who will also start from the back of the grid.The second Frenchman in the running, Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri ), who has been sick for the past few days and almost missed the weekend, finished in 12th place, at 1.503. As for Nyck de Vries, who replaced at short notice Alex Albon, operated on for appendicitis on Friday evening, at Williams, he did quite well. The Dutchman finished 15th, 1.617 behind Verstappen, less than a tenth behind teammate Nicholas Latifi.