Hamilton and Verstappen Avoid Sanction After Monza FP3 Incident

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen will both keep their powder dry for qualifying after the FIA stewards chose not to pursue their wheel-to-wheel flashpoint in final practice at the Italian Grand Prix.

The two old rivals briefly turned FP3 into a qualifying duel on the Monza pit straight, Hamilton appearing to jump ahead of Verstappen in the queue as the field prepared for its last flying runs. What followed looked far more like a race start than a practice warm-up.

Side by side at full speed, Hamilton’s Ferrari and Verstappen’s Red Bull charged towards the Rettifilo chicane, the Dutchman tucked in before lunging late on the brakes down the inside. Hamilton bailed out, straight-lining the escape road to avoid contact as the move tightened.

“He caused that,” Verstappen snapped to Red Bull.

Hamilton, speaking to Ferrari, offered the opposite view: “I got blocked by Max, so…” His race engineer Carlo Santi cut in: “Yes, we saw.”

Both men abandoned what should have been their final timed laps, backing off after the incident. The stewards reviewed the clash but decided no further action was necessary, leaving the simmering rivalry to roll on untouched into qualifying.

The tension had been building even before the pit-straight showdown. Earlier in the session, Verstappen’s frustration crackled over the airwaves after he found himself once again behind red cars in a messy sequence at Lesmo 1. Sergio Perez’s Cadillac had run wide, spitting gravel across the racing line for the Ferrari and Verstappen following behind, prompting an exasperated radio outburst from the world champion about a “Ferrari again” being in the way.

He was not alone in feeling impeded. The stewards also looked at an incident between George Russell and Oscar Piastri, after the McLaren driver came across a slow-moving Russell right on the apex of Lesmo 1 and had to check his speed dramatically. That, too, ended with no further action.

On the stopwatch, Russell had the final word of FP3. The Mercedes driver topped the session with a 1:22.219, laying down a sharp marker ahead of qualifying. Hamilton slotted into second, 0.226 seconds adrift, with Verstappen 0.350s off Russell’s benchmark in third.

No penalties. No grid drops. Just the promise of Hamilton and Verstappen hurtling into Turn 1 at Monza again when it really counts.