Lewis Hamilton was fastest at the end of what was a fascinating final hour of practice for the Italian Grand Prix.

Mercedes topped proceedings though was hotly pursued by Ferrari and McLaren, painting an especially competitive picture heading into qualifying.

Max Verstappen was sixth fastest, though the Red Bull Racing was seemingly off the pace of the trio ahead, unable to live with the pace as the track ramped up in the final stages.

The first meaningful lap of the session came from Oscar Piastri, who logged a 1:20.887s on soft tyres.

It was still steady, less than a tenth up on Verstappen on a set of medium tyres, suggesting a fuel load on board the McLaren.

Lando Norris went marginally quicker with his soft tyre run minutes later, though again it was clearly not a 100 percent effort lap.

That point was emphasised by Carlos Sainz and both Mercedes drivers going quicker, the latter pair on medium rubber.

It did however suggest a tight leading group such that, in qualifying, a well-timed slipstream could be a deciding factor.

Red Bull Racing kept its powder dry through the bulk of the session, with Verstappen remaining down the order after others improved and Sergio Perez even further back.

It was a mixed session elsewhere too, with RB sitting 11th and 12th with Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo respectively midway through the hour.

There, Tsunoda was ahead despite using the medium tyres, versus the softs on Ricciardo, who was three-tenths slower.

After their qualifying runs at the end of the session, the pair swapped around, Ricciardo 12th a just under a second away from the ultimate pace.

Interrupting the usual order was Alex Albon, who’d for a time appeared at the top of the timesheet before he was bumped as the Ferrari pair ran again.

However, the Williams driver remained a factor in eighth place, with team-mate Franco Colapinto a surprise in ninth at the end of the hour.

Nico Hulkenberg had also placed himself in the top10 at the end of the session.

There was a strong element of track evolution on the newly resurfaced tarmac that seemed to offer little degradation.

That built towards the final quarter of the session as most bolted on a set of soft tyres to complete a last qualifying simulation.

There was an incident between Piastri and Leclerc out of Lesmo 2, moving right out of the corner in an apparent move to clear the path for Daniel Ricciardo.

In doing so, he pushed the Ferrari driver wide, Leclerc dipping two wheels onto the grass as he passed the McLaren, who appeared to only see the Ferrari at the last moment.

The qualifying simulations weren’t especially positive for Verstappen, who was 0.25s back from Hamilton who’d emerged fastest.

The Dutchman visibly displeased as he flashed across the line to complete his performance run.

It suggested Red Bull Racing didn’t have the outright pace of Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari, leaving it fourth best of the leading quartet.

Perez offered little additional insight, the Mexican struggling for traction from the first chicane before aborting his qualifying simulation after missing the second chicane. He ended the session 18th.

The feedback from the cockpit was a lack of rotation, similar to the struggles the squad faced a week ago in Zandvoort.

A final change and run as the chequered flag fell failed to net improvements, Verstappen no better than his previous effort.

By contrast, Mercedes ended the session fastest with Ferrari and McLaren nipping at their heels – Leclerc showing good pace on used soft tyres in the latter stages too.

The top five runners, which included Hamilton, George Russell, Leclerc, Piastri, and Norris, were split by just 0.145s, pointing to an especially competitive qualifying hour later in the day.