Kimi Antonelli tops the third and final practice session this weekend. The Madring claimed another couple of victims this afternoon, with seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton, being one of them. Audi look to have pace in the midfield, as Arvid Lindblad’s accident yesterday proved to be costly.

Hamilton Finds The Barriers

The Ferrari driver locked up into the final corner bringing out the red flag. After both Ferraris struggled with Turn 17 yesterday, it would be Turn 22 that would catch the British driver out. He carried too much speed locking the front right first. The impact with the barrier resulted in a broken front wing. Hamilton was very fortunate to not have damaged his suspension. Choosing to attempt to drive around with the front wing under his floor, however, may have caused damage under the car. He later stopped after being around two thirds through the track.

The red flag was a lengthy one. With issues repairing the barrier, the session was stopped. The stoppage prevented the clock from ticking down anymore with 15 minutes to go. This proved helpful for Arvid Lindblad. The rookie found the wall yesterday in FP2. The damage was extensive to the point that he missed majority of FP3. Lindblad was shown climbing into the car during the interruption, getting ready to go out. He was fourth before he crashed yesterday and will hope to find similar performance in qualifying.

Alex Albon was another driver to make contact with the barriers. His case, however, didn’t result in any flags being shown. Albon hit the wall coming out of Turn 20A. He damaged a rear track rod and took no further part in the session. Ollie Bearman was the final driver to have a session ending incident. There was just over a minute left of the session left when Bearman lost the rear of his Haas. The hit was a heavy one against Turn 11’s steel barriers. The crash brought out a red flag unsurprisingly. It will be a huge job to fix that car ahead of qualifying.

Antonelli Looks To Continue Monza Form

During the first laps on the soft tyre, it looked to be Ferrari ahead. Mercedes appeared to find more pace on their later laps. Charles Leclerc led the way ahead of his teammate’s red flag. He set a time of a 1:33.332. Antonelli sat just three tenths behind and Lando Norris was in third, seventh tenths off. Norris up there was a good sign early on despite being so far off. After missing FP2 because of a gearbox issue, he looked to be right up there. Teammate Oscar Piastri, also showed McLaren had made improvement overnight. The pair ended the session in third and fourth, Oscar ahead. 

Max Verstappen’s side of the garage found themselves slightly on the back foot. He sat in his garage for the start of the session without a lap time on the board. Hamilton’s tangle with barriers stopped the Dutchman from going out when they planned. Once out, he finished the session in a strong fifth. It was Antonelli, however, who led the way of the front runners. He topped the session with a 1:32.797. Teammate Russell struggled to find the same speed, finishing down in sixth.

Audi looked strong in the midfield. Nico Hülkenberg was best of the rest. His lap time was 31 thousandths off the nearest front runner of Liam Lawson. Although, it wasn’t entirely smooth running for the Audi driver. A close call was seen between himself, Pierre Gasly, and Norris. The latter two were slow moving near the apex of the corner. He managed to get through unscathed. His teammate, Gabriel Bortoleto, rounded out the top ten just under a second and a half off the pace of P1.