Mercedes light up Monza with one-two with Verstappen left all at sea

Lewis Hamilton spearheaded a Mercedes one-two in final practice for the Italian Grand Prix as Max Verstappen was again left shaking his head in dismay at the performance of his Red Bull.

Three-time F1 champion Verstappen finished a lowly sixth, a staggering quarter-of-a-second adrift of Hamilton, whilst team-mate Sergio Perez was a miserable 18th, not helped by missing a chicane late on whilst on a hot lap that left him 1.170s off the pace.

Even on a fresh set of tyres in the closing moments, Verstappen was unable to improve, losing all his time through the middle sector with a slight dip into the gravel at one stage, despite setting the leading time in the final sector.

By the conclusion, Hamilton followed up his leading time from Friday practice with the best on Saturday with a 1:20.117s, just 0.093s ahead of team-mate George Russell, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc a further 0.016s further back.

McLaren duo  Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were also just a tenth off the pace to finish ahead of Verstappen.

Following an early sighter lap from Haas' Kevin Magnussen of 1:21.774s to start the session, the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Perez soon usurped the Dane, the former by two-tenths of a second.

Naturally, the lap times soon tumbled as the session continued, with Russell the first to beat the leading time from Friday set by team-mate Hamilton with a 1:20.706, and on the medium compound rubber, quicker by almost three-tenths of a second.

With 20 minutes elapsed at that stage, Sainz, Hamilton and Norris were all within a tenth of a second, only for Leclerc to move to the top of the timesheet by 0.092s over Russell, albeit on the softs.

With the fuel being taken out of the cars as qualifying simulation runs commenced, Williams' Alex Albon took over from Leclerc at the top by 0.018s.

The Thai-British driver, however, did not remain in that position for long as Ferrari brought smiles to the faces of the Tifosi with Sainz and Leclerc in a one-two with 20 minutes remaining, with the duo separated by a tenth of a second.

Leclerc, though, soon gained the upperhand by 0.237s over Sainz, only for Norris to split the Scuderia pair, with the Briton 0.036s behind on his first soft-tyre, low-fuel run, followed by Piastri, 0.026s adrift.

In an intriguing encounter, it was then the Mercedes pair of Hamilton and Russell who posted the leading times - the former with a 1:20.117s, with the latter only 0.093s adrift. Despite that time, Russell remarked: "I'm pretty rubbish. Balance is a long way off."

As for Verstappen, at that stage, with nine minutes left, the three-time F1 champion was a staggering quarter of a second off the pace. The Dutchman was left complaining about the RB20's failure to "turn in low speed and medium speed".

Another late venture resulted in Verstappen unable to improve, primarily due to the slight nudge into the gravel but with a slight glimmer of hope given his leading final sector time.

Behind Verstappen there followed Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, Albon, and then new team-mate Franco Colapinto, with just three-tenths of a second separating the pair.

Haas' Nico Hulkenberg, who set the fastest first sector, completed the top 10. Team-mate Kevin Magnussen finished the session on track as he was told to stop his car.