Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Monza, 2020

Bottas quickest in final practice as Hamilton has near-miss with traffic

2020 Italian Grand Prix third practice

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Valtteri Bottas headed the final practice session for the Italian Grand Prix, which was disrupted by a red flag in the dying minutes.

The Mercedes driver came very close to straying beyond track limits at Parabolica, but the stewards allowed his best time of 1’20.089 to stand.

With eight minutes to go, Daniel Ricciardo came to a stop in between the two Lesmo corners after setting the third-fastest time. Renault said they suspect his car suffered a fuel pump failure, and said they expect it will be replaced in time for him to be able to participate in qualifying.

The session resumed with enough time left for drivers to make their final flying runs. That was sufficient for Carlos Sainz Jnr to take second place from team mate Lando Norris, who was in turn just seven-thousandths of a second quicker than Ricciardo.

Lewis Hamilton came fifth behind the Renault-powered sweep of places two, three and four. He had a near-miss arriving at Parabolica at the end of the session, taking to the grass as he encountered two drivers running slowly side-by-side approaching the final corner.

Traffic remained a concern for several F1 drivers ahead of the qualifying hour. Norris was held up by Charles Leclerc at Parabolica early in the session, prompting him to ask on the radio with the Ferrari driver was aware of the blue flags.

Leclerc, however, voiced concerns over the new delta time drivers are required not to exceed between the two Safety Car lines as a safety measure. The Ferrari driver warned it could make the traffic situation more dangerous on ‘charge’ laps between qualifying runs.

In a close session, the Red Bull drivers lapped within half a second of Bottas, demoting Esteban Ocon to eighth in the second Renault. The Racing Point drivers completed the top 10, followed by Leclerc in the first of the Ferraris.

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2020 Italian Grand Prix Third Practice classification

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
177Valtteri BottasMercedes1’20.08914
255Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault1’20.3180.22914
34Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’20.4120.32315
43Daniel RicciardoRenault1’20.4190.3309
544Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’20.4390.35011
633Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’20.4560.36715
723Alexander AlbonRed Bull-Honda1’20.5630.47415
831Esteban OconRenault1’20.6930.60413
918Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes1’20.8040.71514
1011Sergio PerezRacing Point-Mercedes1’20.8970.80813
1116Charles LeclercFerrari1’20.9170.82811
1210Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Honda1’20.9360.84714
1326Daniil KvyatAlphaTauri-Honda1’20.9530.86413
148Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’21.2051.11614
155Sebastian VettelFerrari1’21.2631.17413
1620Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’21.4361.34715
177Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’21.4591.37015
1863George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’21.6771.58816
196Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes1’21.7641.67515
2099Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’22.0902.00115

Third practice visual gaps

Valtteri Bottas – 1’20.089

+0.229 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’20.318

+0.323 Lando Norris – 1’20.412

+0.330 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’20.419

+0.350 Lewis Hamilton – 1’20.439

+0.367 Max Verstappen – 1’20.456

+0.474 Alexander Albon – 1’20.563

+0.604 Esteban Ocon – 1’20.693

+0.715 Lance Stroll – 1’20.804

+0.808 Sergio Perez – 1’20.897

+0.828 Charles Leclerc – 1’20.917

+0.847 Pierre Gasly – 1’20.936

+0.864 Daniil Kvyat – 1’20.953

+1.116 Romain Grosjean – 1’21.205

+1.174 Sebastian Vettel – 1’21.263

+1.347 Kevin Magnussen – 1’21.436

+1.370 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’21.459

+1.588 George Russell – 1’21.677

+1.675 Nicholas Latifi – 1’21.764

+2.001 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’22.090

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Valtteri BottasMercedes1’20.7031’20.4541’20.089-0.36571
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’20.9481’20.1921’20.439+0.24770
3Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault1’21.8211’21.3131’20.318-0.99571
4Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’21.7471’21.0891’20.412-0.67763
5Daniel RicciardoRenault1’21.7891’22.0801’20.419-1.3760
6Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’21.6411’21.2281’20.456-0.77267
7Alexander AlbonRed Bull-Honda1’21.5001’21.8831’20.563-0.93781
8Esteban OconRenault1’21.9841’21.6971’20.693-1.00473
9Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes1’22.1311’21.3891’20.804-0.58567
10Sergio PerezRacing Point-Mercedes1’21.7471’21.5941’20.897-0.69769
11Charles LeclercFerrari1’21.9041’21.5031’20.917-0.58668
12Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Honda1’21.6671’21.1211’20.936-0.18566
13Daniil KvyatAlphaTauri-Honda1’21.5551’21.3761’20.953-0.42379
14Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’22.4091’22.2541’21.205-1.04968
15Sebastian VettelFerrari1’22.9881’21.7331’21.263-0.4765
16Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’22.4221’22.0881’21.436-0.65266
17Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’22.6191’22.1471’21.459-0.68876
18George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’22.9271’21.677-1.2550
19Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes1’23.1201’22.8251’21.764-1.06169
20Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’22.5521’21.7861’22.090+0.30471
21Roy NissanyWilliams-Mercedes1’22.82625

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2020 Italian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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7 comments on “Bottas quickest in final practice as Hamilton has near-miss with traffic”

  1. Big mistake in the title if the article. Please correct it.

    Close times at the front.

    1. Oh the irony. Not if, of :-)

      1. Nice of you to make a mistake when pointing out to a mistake 😁

        1. Its called being courteous and showing empathy.. 😁

  2. Hamilton has not looked right all weekend. seeing raikkonen follow bottas, merc’s monza wing is very skinny, they are quick but slick, lots of sliding.

    1. As you will know, Lewis pulls it out of tge bag when it matters, when he is on the back foot. We shouldve all learned this by now. This is Hamiltons forte.

    2. Not sure I understand your comment (but that goes for a lot of your comments to be honest!) At what point has Lewis not looked right? And Kimi following Bottas – where?

Comments are closed.