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Italian GP P3: Lewis Hamilton fastest again as Monza rain clears

Hamilton completes practice clean-sweep after Monza rain storm washes away Friday's grip; Vettel second-quickest for Ferrari; Newly-installed Renault engine breaks down in Ricciardo's car

Lewis Hamilton
Image: Lewis Hamilton made it three from three in Italian GP practice

Lewis Hamilton remained unbeatable around Monza as he completed another hat-trick of fastest practice times – this time on a drying track – but Sebastian Vettel split the Mercedes for Ferrari.

The Monza area had been drenched by heavy morning rain, but the darkest skies had moved from above the circuit two hours before practice began, eventually giving way to sunnier conditions.

The 5.8km track was still damp enough for intermediate tyres to be used in the first half an hour of running, although Toro Rosso were the only team to complete any sustained track time with the shallow grooves.

Slick tyres went on for the final 30 minutes of the session after the track had dried and, as on Friday, it was championship leader Hamilton who led the way. The Briton's best time of 1:24.544 was three tenths slower than he managed on Friday, suggesting there is plenty more pace to find once the track conditions improve further for qualifying.

Mercedes had completely dominated the day one running but Vettel suggested Ferrari may be slightly closer than it had appeared as he nudged ahead of Nico Rosberg to take second place, 0.264s back on Hamilton.

Nico Rosberg
Image: Nico Rosberg dropped to third behind Vettel in P3

"He is the story of the session for me. Yesterday, they were trying some different things on the car, it was just a test session for Ferrari, there were some improvements they knew they could make very quickly," remarked Sky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz.

"We get to Saturday morning, qualifying day, we put the soft tyres on and we see there is speed in this Ferrari."

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Former world champions Red Bull, meanwhile, suffered yet more engine misery as a brand new Renault unit in Daniel Ricciardo's RB11 broke inside a handful of laps.

Already knowing they faced qualifying on the grid's back rows having been forced to unlock new engines for this weekend, Red Bull followed the lead of McLaren from Spa on Saturday morning by adding further power unit elements to their pool in a bid to avoid more penalties in Singapore – including seventh internal combustion engines for both drivers.

However, that tactic has appeared to have backfired on Ricciardo's car with Christian Horner telling Sky Sports F1: "It looks like it is something terminal on the engine so it looks like an engine change. Unfortunately we don't have any more engines so we are going to put the one from yesterday in. So it looks like an engine lost."

Having amassed an array of penalties, Ricciardo faces a 50-place grid drop with Kvyat to take a nominal 30 places.

Red Bull, winners of the Italian GP in two of the last four years, will therefore not find themselves in what is turning into an increasingly intriguing 'best of the rest' battle behind Mercedes.

Williams showed stronger form on Saturday morning to finish fourth and fifth fastest, with Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa respectively, with Pastor Maldonado sixth for Lotus. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Force India's Sergio Perez rounded out the top eight as times tumbled towards the end of the session.

Meanwhile, Red Bull are set to be joined at the back of the grid by sister team Toro Rosso, who have also decided to unlock two fresh engines this weekend, and McLaren, whose drivers Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button have been penalised by 10 and five places respectively.

Practice Three timesheet
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:24.544
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:24.808
3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:24.843
4. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:24.946
5. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:25.165
6. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1:25.242
7. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:25.244
8. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1:25.515
9. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:25.692
10. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1:25.747
11. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1:25.912
12. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:26.141
13. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1:26.632]
14. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:26.750
15. Will Stevens, Manor, 1:28.123
16. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1:28.215
17. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1:28.591
18. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:28.628
19. Roberto Merhi, Manor, 1:29.117
20. Daniel Ricciardo, Red  Bull, 1:29.900

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