Lando Norris flips McLaren dominance as F1 drivers struggle ahead of Imola qualifying

Lando Norris turned the tables on team-mate Oscar Piastri as McLaren continued its dominance of Emilia Romagna Grand Prix practice.

Piastri spearheaded McLaren one-twos in each of the two Friday runs, yet it was Norris who managed to get his nose in front of the Australian going into qualifying at Imola.

After gaps of 0.032s and 0.025s in favour of Piastri over Norris in FP1 and FP2 respectively, the Briton finished FP3 exactly a tenth of a second clear at the end of a tricky hour-long session with a leading time of 1:14.897s.

Max Verstappen was third quickest in his Red Bull, 0.181s adrift, and on the medium tyre, but at least putting himself in the mix in qualifying following a tough Friday.

The session, though, was a strange one once the drivers switched to their qualifying simulation runs in the final 15 to 20 minutes.

It was fully expected that the majority would be in the 1:14s, but few were able to hook up a clean lap, as small errors were made, whilst there were complaints as well that their cars did not feel as quick as on Friday.

Piastri, Verstappen, and Norris especially, all made mistakes. The Briton, on a second set of softs, could not get his car to turn into Tamburello at one stage, forcing him to bounce over the gravel and ruin a set of tyres.

The quandary now for the teams will be their planning going into qualifying given the performance of the medium tyre compared to the softs.

Ferrari struggle

From an initially sedate 1:16.983 on the medium compound from Lewis Hamilton in his Ferrari, on a second flying lap, the seven-time F1 champion warmed to his task with a 1:15.866s.

From that moment, the lead changed hands on several occasions as first Piastri, then Verstappen, and surprisingly Racing Bull's Isack Hadjar set the pace.

On the medium tyre, which was last year's soft following the introduction for this race of Pirelli's C6, new for this season and the softest tyre in the manufacturer's range, Verstappen posted the fastest lap of the weekend to date with a 1:15.130s.

Approaching the halfway mark, Liam Lawson suffered an almost identical incident to Hadjar at the end of FP2 through Tamburello.

Lawson spun through 360 degrees, and although the New Zealander had wheels on the grass, unlike Hadjar, he managed to keep his car out of the gravel and continue back to the garage.

Moments later, given the track evolution, Verstappen improved his advantage, posting a 1:15.078s. Norris finished the medium-tyre running 0.191s adrift, with Hadjar demoted to third.

On the first significant soft-tyre run from the leading players, Piastri made an error in sector two, after posting a purple sector one that compromised his outing, running slightly wide out of the second Acqua Minerale kink.

Verstappen followed suit, purpling the first sector but unable to hook up the car through two and three.

Instead, it was Norris who became the first driver to dip below the 75-second mark with a 1:14.897s.

Kimi Antonelli, on home soil with the 18-year-old born in the nearby city of Bologna, from 11th on the timesheet on the medium rubber, jumped up to fourth on the softs with 10 minutes remaining, half a second behind Norris.

After Norris' error into the Tamburello gravel, Hamilton kicked up stones as he emerged out of the second Rivazza, but was able to complete his lap, albeit leaving him in 10th.

Piastri, on a second lap on a set of the red-striped rubber, managed to get within a tenth of Norris, with the duo the only drivers below 1:15.

Behind Verstappen, Antonelli stayed fourth, with Charles Leclerc fifth quickest, over half a second down, with Hamilton 10th.

In between the duo, Williams' Carlos Sainz was sixth, followed by Hadjar, George Russell, who was far from happy in his Mercedes, with the second Williams of Alex Albon ninth, 0.835s down.

Esteban Ocon, as was the case in FP1 and FP2, finished rock-bottom on the timesheet, 1.490s adrift.