Hamilton tops final Monza practice

F1 Grand Prix, GP Italy, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza

Lewis Hamilton topped the times in the final practice session in preparation for the Italian GP. Ferrari drivers Alonso and Raikkonen put up the closest challenge while Nico Rosberg hit technical issues.

The final free practice session ahead of qualifying got underway with all drivers trying out the harder tyre. Lewis Hamilton notably got underway to do a race stint on this tyre, having missed a large part of FP2 due to a technical problem.

20 minutes from the end of the session, Fernando Alonso became the first to put on the medium compound tyre, immediately improving to second fastest and staying there until the end of the session. The Spaniard didn't really improve his time later on, while at the same time Raikkonen managed to post the third fastest time, completing just two attempts.

Lewis Hamilton on the other hand didn't find an improvement on his first attempt on the medium, but continuing on the same tyre for two more laps, the car found some speed, indicating that the Mercedes may need some time to get those tyres up to temperature.

On the other side of the box at Mercedes, Nico Rosberg was in trouble this time around, being sidelined for the entire session with gearbox problems. While it looked like Hamilton would enter qualifying on the back foot compared to his team mate, it's now the other way around.