Red Bull on back foot in four-team Monza pole fight after practice

Mercedes headed a four-team, six-car group covered by just a quarter of a second in Formula 1’s final practice session at Monza, setting up what promises to be a fascinating qualifying fight at the Italian Grand Prix.

Championship leader Max Verstappen was only sixth as Red Bull struggled at a track its world champion has won at the last two years, with both of its drivers enduring slightly difficult sessions.

Verstappen showed small signs of frustration on two late push laps on softs, first when he crossed the line 0.251s off the pace and lamented a car that had too much understeer, then later when he dipped a wheel into the gravel exiting the second chicane.

He’d already had a slightly wild moment earlier in FP3 when, while on medium tyres, he caught a slide exiting the second Lesmo corner.

Meanwhile, team-mate Sergio Perez was only 18th after failing to nail a time on soft tyres. He had to take to the run-off when he turned in from too wide a position on the entry to the second chicane and bailed out of it mid-corner.

With the Red Bulls muted, at least by their lofty standards, the door might be open to Dutch Grand Prix dominator McLaren – but Zandvoort winner Lando Norris was only fifth in FP3, slower than team-mate Oscar Piastri.

The McLarens did their soft tyre running slightly earlier than Red Bull and Mercedes, but were both within 0.15s of the pace. Piastri came out the quicker of the two, despite looking a little ragged.

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He ran through the gravel on the exit of Lesmo 2 on one lap, and the exit of the second chicane on another. He also had a couple of near-misses with Charles Leclerc, the second by far the more eyebrow-raising of the two as Piastri inadvertently squeezed the Ferrari onto the grass while trying to get out of Daniel Ricciardo’s way. That incident will be investigated post-session.

Leclerc was third-fastest in this session on an encouraging-looking afternoon for Ferrari, which set its fastest times a few laps into a run on the same set of softs.

He was just over a tenth behind pacesetter Lewis Hamilton – who edged a slightly unhappy team-mate George Russell by 0.093s.

Russell, who bemoaned his seat getting hot again after similar issues on Friday and complained about his car’s balance, had one last crack at going quickest and set personal bests in the first and final sectors, but was too slow in the middle part of the lap.

With both Mercedes cars having the upgraded floor that's had some question marks over it following its removal at Spa and the team's struggles at Zandvoort, the team might have some encouraging answers about its latest development - especially if it can replicate this one-two in qualifying.

Outside of the 'big four', Alex Albon - having produced an eyebrow-raising lap - and new Williams team-mate Franco Colapinto led the chasing pack, while Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10.

Hulkenberg's team-mate Kevin Magnussen was ordered by Haas to park his car on track with an unspecified problem after the chequered flag.