Valtteri Bottas completed a clean sweep of Tuscan Grand Prix practice sessions but his deficit over Max Verstappen was just 0.017s.
Bottas, who fronted both of Friday’s sessions, clocked a time of 1:16.530 to lead the way once more during Saturday’s final one-hour running.
Red Bull’s Verstappen was a mere 0.017s down on Bottas, while Lewis Hamilton remained firmly in contention in third, having conceded after FP2 that he had yet to get a handle on Mugello.
Hamilton was only 0.083s down on his Mercedes team-mate, with 2020’s leading trio resuming their positions firmly clear of the pack after Monza’s madness.
Stroll fronts the midfield
Fourth in the championship was fourth in the session as Lance Stroll led the midfield group, half a second behind Bottas, ahead of Monza winner Pierre Gasly.
An off through the second sector hampered Gasly’s prospects while the yellow flags prompted McLaren’s Lando Norris to back off.
Norris wound up only 19th, substantially off the pace, after failing to get his hot lap in.
Racing Point’s Sergio Perez, who will drop one place on the grid as a sanction for clashing with Kimi Raikkonen in FP2, was sixth.
Mixed fortunes for Ferrari
Charles Leclerc put in a strong lap to take seventh place for Ferrari, and within a second of Bottas, suggesting that the SF1000 could contend for Q3 on home soil.
But team-mate Sebastian Vettel once more struggled.
Vettel, with only 16 points after eight races, finished as the slowest of the 18 drivers who posted a representative time.
He was 1.6s off the pace, six-tenths behind Leclerc.
Alexander Albon was another to lack relative pace as he classified eighth, nearly a second down on Verstappen, while Daniil Kvyat and Romain Grosjean capped the top 10.
Russell stymied by brakes
George Russell managed only one lap before a brake problem hampered his Williams FW43.
He coasted back into the pit lane but took no further part in the session.
Williams team-mate Nicholas Latifi provided some hope by taking 16th, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Vettel, though was slower than both Alfa Romeo and Haas drivers.
Qualifying for Formula 1’s Tuscan Grand Prix is scheduled for 15:00 local time.
| # | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:16.530 | 17 | |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:16.547 | 0.017 | 10 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:16.613 | 0.083 | 14 |
| 4 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point | 1:17.112 | 0.582 | 10 |
| 5 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1:17.226 | 0.696 | 14 |
| 6 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point | 1:17.341 | 0.811 | 14 |
| 7 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:17.488 | 0.958 | 15 |
| 8 | Alex Albon | Red Bull | 1:17.538 | 1.008 | 11 |
| 9 | Daniil Kvyat | AlphaTauri | 1:17.627 | 1.097 | 17 |
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:17.635 | 1.105 | 19 |
| 11 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 1:17.746 | 1.216 | 13 |
| 12 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | McLaren | 1:17.768 | 1.238 | 19 |
| 13 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 1:17.812 | 1.282 | 15 |
| 14 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 1:17.843 | 1.313 | 17 |
| 15 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:18.039 | 1.509 | 17 |
| 16 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 1:18.072 | 1.542 | 16 |
| 17 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1:18.142 | 1.612 | 12 |
| 18 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:18.186 | 1.656 | 15 |
| 19 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:18.826 | 2.296 | 19 |
| 20 | George Russell | Williams | 1 |
