Monza, FP3: Hamilton quickest as Rosberg encounters gearbox problem

Lewis Hamilton topped the final practice session timesheet at Monza as title rival Nico Rosberg failed to set a time due to a gearbox problem.

The championship leader is not likely to take a grid penalty, however, with Mercedes technical director Paddy Lowe saying that the problem should be fixed ahead of qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix.

One driver who will take a grid penalty, however, is Daniil Kvyat. In advance of final practice FIA race stewards revealed that the Toro Rosso driver has used up his allocation of five internal combustion engines and has had to fit a sixth for this weekend. He will take a 10-place grid penalty for tomorrow.

On track, Hamilton set the quickest time of the hours during his final option tyre run at the end of the session, setting a lap of 1:25.519 to top the order ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari, by just under half a second, and Williams’ Valtteri Bottas.

Rosberg, meanwhile, was stuck in the Mercedes garage. The German had been forced to end his first run of the day, on hard tyres, early on and he remained in the garage for the rest of the session, failing to set a time.

Bottas’ Wlliams team-mate Felipe Massa was fourth, the Brazilian’s time of 1:26.114 confirming that the Grove-based squad are in a good position to fight for places at the sharp-end of the grid and for a podium in Sunday’s race.

Jenson Button was fifth for McLaren, ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel. After finishing third in FP2, Kimi Raikkonen was seventh in the second Ferrari with a time eight tenths down on Hamilton and four tenths tenths down on team-mate Alonso.

The final top-10 places were taken by the unfortunate Kvyat, who was a full second ahead of team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne, Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull Racing car and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg.