Lando Norris leads 2025 Italian Grand Prix FP3 as Charles Leclerc keeps Ferrari hopes alive

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Norris once again demonstrated his skill by topping his second timing sheet of the weekend, although focus turns to whether the Brit can keep the position in qualifying.

Ahead of this morning’s FP3 session, Alpine announced that they had renewed Pierre Gasly’s contract, keeping him with the team until the end of 2028. It comes as the team’s second seat remains under speculation, as Franco Colapinto struggles to impress.

Williams displayed a strong performance during yesterday’s practice sessions, with Alex Albon confidently saying after FP2: “The cars are quick, and we had reasonable race pace today, so we’re in a good place”. Both Albon and Carlos Sainz saw themselves towards the top of the leaderboard, with Sainz finishing third in both sessions.

Kimi Antonelli started the session hoping for a clean practice after finding himself beached in the gravel during FP2. The young Italian also crashed during practice for the Dutch Grand Prix, so he really needed to get some experience in before qualifying later today.

Isack Hadjar will be investigated after the session for failing to follow the race director’s instructions in regards to the slip road at the Variante chicane.

It was an incredibly tight FP3 session, with under a second separating Norris in pole and Ocon at the bottom of the timings. This will make for an interesting qualifying session this afternoon, with top positions being anyone’s for the taking.

Max Verstappen and Esteban Ocon battle for position during Turn 1 fight

Max Verstappen hit traffic halfway through the session, being forced to thread his way through between a Sauber and Esteban Ocon’s Haas. Despite making his way past heading into Turn 1, Ocon came back at the Red Bull and overtook around the outside.

At the halfway mark, Verstappen led the pack, three tenths ahead of the Ferrari drivers, who were separated by just 0.010. Albon was also up at the top of the timings, sitting in fourth, behind Hamilton.

Tailwind at Turn 1 saw cars struggling with the first chicane, including Piastri, Hamilton and Sainz. A number of drivers went wide during the early parts of the session, with Colapinto and Bearman taking trips through the gravel traps.

McLaren finally showed their pace with 10 minutes remaining

The McLarens waited towards the end of the session to really show their hand, with Norris and Piastri topping the timing sheets with 15 minutes remaining. The pair had spent most of the session sitting towards the bottom of the pack before finding the time later in the practice.

McLaren led the start of the soft tyre qualifying laps, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto also demonstrating a strong performance, putting himself in third behind Verstappen and Norris.

Charles Leclerc saw two massive snaps of oversteer during the session, managing to save the Ferrari from a nasty crash. His first snap came at the Parabolica during the early part of FP3, before another at the second Lesmo saw him dip the car into the gravel.

Full timings for 2025 Italian Grand Prix FP3 session