George Russell Dominates FP3 at Monza for Italian Grand Prix
George Russell laid down an ominous marker at Monza, lighting up final practice and installing himself as the clear favourite for Italian Grand Prix pole.
The Mercedes driver topped FP3 with a 1m22.219s, a lap that did not even benefit from a tow and still ended up 0.226s clear of the field. It was three tenths faster than Friday’s benchmark and, more importantly, it looked controlled. Repeatable. Dangerous for everyone else.
Russell sets the standard
Mercedes spent a chunk of the session rehearsing slipstream routines, Russell and Kimi Antonelli trading places on the straights as the team honed the tows that so often decide qualifying at Monza. When Russell went for his final push, he did it alone.
No draft. No traffic. Just a clean lap that left the rest chasing shadows.
Lewis Hamilton got closest, slotting into second, while Max Verstappen hauled Red Bull back into the picture in third after a scruffy Friday. The world champion’s one-lap pace looked sharper, the car more planted, but he still couldn’t touch Russell’s time.
There was late drama between Verstappen and Hamilton too. The Ferrari driver slipped ahead of Verstappen on the run into Alboreto (Parabolica), prompting Verstappen to give him a pointed thumbs-up over the line to signal his lap had been ruined. At Turn 1 he then ran deep, effectively blocking the apex and making sure Hamilton couldn’t make full use of the corner. The stewards noted the incident.
Antonelli in the mix, McLaren lurking
Championship leader Antonelli ended the session fourth, backing up Mercedes’ strong form even with grid penalties hanging over his weekend. He may be out of the pole fight on paper, but his raw pace still mattered in the long-run simulations and tow practice.
Behind him, Lando Norris kept McLaren firmly in the frame in fifth. The winner of the last two races never quite pieced together a lap to trouble Russell, yet his underlying speed remained solid.
Oscar Piastri delivered one of the more intriguing laps of the hour. On his final attempt he went purple in the first sector and stayed within Russell’s benchmark through sector two, only to fade badly in the final part of the lap. He crossed the line over half a second down and only eighth-fastest. The drop-off told its own story about how aggressively teams are experimenting with energy deployment and battery usage around Monza’s long straights.
Splitting the McLarens were Charles Leclerc in the second Ferrari and a standout Arvid Lindblad in the Racing Bulls.
Lindblad’s tow and the midfield picture
For a brief spell late on, Lindblad sat atop the times in the final sector, thanks to a monster tow from Nico Hulkenberg’s Audi. The slipstream dragged him down the straight and flattered the overall lap time, but the gap he opened to the rest of the midfield still caught the eye.
Pierre Gasly ended the session as the next-best midfield runner, placing his Alpine ahead of team-mate Franco Colapinto as the pair locked out the final two spots in the top 10. Gasly’s run looked tidy rather than spectacular, but Alpine at least carried both cars into a competitive window before qualifying.
Liam Lawson endured a more bruising start to Saturday. The second Red Bull snapped away from him under power over the kerb at the first chicane, sending the RB22 into a spin. He recovered and continued, yet never quite rediscovered the rhythm, finishing 12th – almost a second off Russell and more than six tenths shy of Verstappen.
Aston Martin-Cadillac adrift
At the rear, Fernando Alonso salvaged something from a muted session for Aston Martin-Cadillac. A late improvement lifted him to the front of the team’s quartet, but the green cars again looked detached from the main pack, lacking the bite needed on low fuel.
As FP3 wrapped up, one picture stood out more clearly than any tow train or sector time: Russell has the measure of Monza so far, with or without help down the straights. The question now is whether anyone can disrupt that rhythm when it matters most, with the whole grid lined up and the slipstreams at their most ruthless.
