Max Verstappen set the fastest lap of final practice for tomorrow’s FIA Formula 1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, beating McLaren’s Lando Norris by almost half a second as defending World Champion  Lewis Hamilton finished third.

The session got off to the slow start, with just Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Räikkönen and the Haas cars of mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin circling. In a signal of what was to become a regular feature of the session, all three quickly fell foul of track limits monitoring at Turn 9 and had their laps deleted.

After they had recovered and posted times, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc then made his way to P1 on his first flying lap with a time of 1:17.321. He improved again but then was eclipsed by Red Bull’s Sergiuo Pérez who set a new benchmark at 1:16.332.

The session was briefly red-flagged when Nicholas Latifi spun off at the Villeneuve chicane and clipped the wall. The Canadian was able to continue, however, and after he limped back to the pits for repairs the action quickly resumed.

Latifi’s crash had derailed Verstappen’s first run of the morning and when the green light was given the Dutchman was straight back on track. He took P1 with his first flying lap but that was soon deleted for a track limits infringement and he dropped to the foot of the timesheet.

Bottas took top spot with a lap of 1:15.984 but Verstappen, after a messy second attempt, then got it right at the third time of asking with a new fastest lap of 1:15.895.

It wasn’t good enough to remain the standard, however, and Pierre Gasly powered past the time before Leclerc bolted on a set of soft tyres and rose to P1 with a lap of 1:15.738.

He was then demoted by Hamilton on softs, before Norris moved into the lead with the lap of 1:15.414. Verstappen was winding up for another attempt on red rubber, however, and after setting fastest times in the final two sectors he took P1 with a lap of 1:14.958, 0.456 ahead of Norris.

With Hamilton third behind Norris, fourth place went to Sergio Peerez in the second Red Bull, with Leclerc fifth for Ferrari. Gasly took an impressive for AlphaTauri, while Sainz finished seventh in the other Ferrari. Bottas, who made a mistake on one run, finished in eighth ahead of the Alpine pairing of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon.

2021 FIA Formula 1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – Free Practice 31 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1:14.958 18 235.7642 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:15.414 0.456 17 234.3383 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:15.515 0.557 18 234.0254 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda 1:15.551 0.593 18 233.9135 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:15.738 0.780 21 233.3356 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 1:15.890 0.932 22 232.8687 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:15.908 0.950 21 232.8138 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:15.908 0.950 19 232.8139 Fernando Alonso Alpine/Renault 1:16.186 1.228 20 231.96310 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:16.228 1.270 20 231.83611 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri/Honda 1:16.230 1.272 20 231.82912 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:16.245 1.287 19 231.78413 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren/Mercedes 1:16.253 1.295 17 231.76014 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:16.389 1.431 19 231.34715 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 1:16.427 1.469 20 231.23216 Mick Schumacher Haas/Ferrari 1:16.448 1.490 22 231.16817 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1:16.537 1.579 15 230.90018 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:16.612 1.654 22 230.67419 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:16.803 1.845 23 230.10020 Nikita Mazepin Haas/Ferrari 1:17.398 2.440 23 228.331