Kimi Antonelli gave his home crowd something to smile about as he improved to go fourth, having seemingly lacked pace in comparison to Russell throughout the session. Norris, meanwhile, had a trip through the gravel before making his way back to the pits.
While Piastri bettered his previous lap to move up to second, it was ultimately not enough to dislodge Norris from the top, the Briton ending the session in P1 thanks to his earlier effort that kept him one-tenth clear of his team mate. Verstappen followed in third – the only non-McLaren driver within two-tenths of the papaya cars – with Antonelli fourth and Leclerc fifth.
READ MORE: Stella pinpoints where Piastri has improved as McLaren driver sits on brink of matching Senna record at Imola
Sainz put his Williams into P6, while Hadjar, Russell, Alex Albon and Hamilton completed the top 10 order. Fernando Alonso claimed P11 for Aston Martin – a team that ran a different strategy by gathering data on the hard tyre during the session – ahead of Haas’ Ollie Bearman, Lance Stroll, Lawson and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
Gabriel Bortoleto – who suffered a crash on Friday at the end of FP1 – was 16th in the Kick Sauber, followed by Tsunoda, the returning Franco Colapinto for Alpine, Nico Hulkenberg and the Haas of Esteban Ocon bringing up the rear in 20th and last place.
With the last practice session of the weekend now complete, the drivers and teams will have a final chance to debrief and examine their data before returning to action for Qualifying, which is set to get underway at 1600 local time.
