Practice Three for the 2022 Italian Grand Prix was under way at Monza and Sergio Perez was first out on track, as we got confirmation that Esteban Ocon was the latest driver to be taking a grid penalty this weekend for a new engine, while the first news of the day what that Alex Albon would not take any further part this weekend due to appendicitis and would be replaced by young driver Nyck de Vries.
We did not have many cars out on track in the early stages, but it was Sergio Perez’s Red Bull that was leading the way as he set a 1:22.611, while Max Verstappen and his Red Bull engineers were not happy with George Russell: they believed the Mercedes driver held up Verstappen on the Dutchman’s first attempt at a flying lap.
A few moments later, there was a bit of a mishap between Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz, with the Alfa Romeo being forced off track and down the escape road because the Ferrari was going too slowly in front of him: “I don’t know if you saw that but that was pretty close,” said Bottas over the team radio, as the stewards were investigating the incident.
Nyck de Vries had to wait almost half the session, but the Williams mechanics finally got Alex Albon’s car ready for him, and he was out on track.
Charles Leclerc appeared to be closely matched with Max Verstappen once more, and has moved within a tenth of the Red Bull’s leading time. We also saw the Mercedes cars out on track, and they continued to be significantly off the pace: Lewis Hamilton was seventh, almost 1.5s back from Max Verstappen, while George Russell was beyond two seconds back in 16th.
Following that Turn 1 incident that forced Valtteri Bottas to take evasive action, Carlos Sainz was summoned by stewards: he will have to go and explain himself at 1:45pm BST, shortly before the start of qualifying.
With soft tyres on, Max Verstappen remained the fastest driver on track: he was more than three tenths clear of Charles Leclerc, with Sergio Perez almost 0.6s back in third. It looked as though Max Verstappen has the edge for qualifying, but the question is whether Charles Leclerc’s race pace will be strong enough to take advantage of the Dutchman’s five-place grid penalty.
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In the final moments of the third free practice session at the Monza circuit, Charles Leclerc had some feedback for his Ferrari garage and wants them to focus on how he can improve at Turn 6: “We need to work on Turn 6 especially. All the other corners it’s fine. On Turn 6 it isn’t turning at all.” – he said over the team radio, as the Maranello team will be hoping to be able to improve ahead of the qualifying session which takes place later today.
The chequered flag was then waved and Max Verstappen once more appeared to be the fastest driver on the track ahead of qualifying. That was a particularly disappointing session for Mercedes, who appear to have a lot of work to do before qualifying and the race in Italy.
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