Carlos Sainz was narrowly faster than Max Verstappen in the final practice session for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

The Ferrari driver was 0.086s at the end of the 60 minutes of running, during which he was warned by officials.

Sainz received the sportsmanship flag after he heavily baulked Oscar Piastri at the opening chicane to the point the two made contact.

There was no damage, but it left the Australian questioning his scarlet rival.

Lance Stroll was on track early, unsurprising given he sat out Free Practice 1 before a fuel system issue halted him in Free Practice 2 before he banked a lap time.

Sergio Perez also wasted no time in heading out as he looked to make amends for his crash late in Friday’s running.

Not everyone was in such a hurry; Oscar Piastri wasn’t even in his car as the session began.

Again, the weekend’s tyre rules prompted different approaches from teams, with all three compounds in use.

Lando Norris was on soft tyres, using them to set the best time in the early minutes – a 1:22.515s.

The rear wing of the MCL60 was coated in flo-viz paint as the team continued to gather data on its all-new low downforce package.

Norris’ lap quickly fell to Verstappen and Perez, the former banking a 1:21.838s with his Red Bull team-mate managing a 1:22.192s.

Both were also on the soft tyres, though neither at the ultimate limit – the best time from the same session a year ago was more than 0.5s faster.

Traffic had proved less of an issue, a point that was addressed in the drivers’ meeting on Friday night.

That resulted in a change for this weekend, with a minimum time set designed to prevent cars from banking up to an excessive amount.

The outright pace hardly changed as the session wore on, Verstappen bringing it down to 1:21.687s in a comparatively straightforward session.

There were a handful of surprise results, including Alex Albon going second fastest on a set of medium tyres with a 1:22.114s, pushing Haas’ Kevin Magnussen down to fourth.

Magnussen had recorded an early qualifying simulation, which left him unusually high on the timesheets with 22 minutes remaining.

A mistake from Piastri saw the Australian bounce through the gravel at Variante Roggia.

He carried strong speed through the left-hander, the back stepping out, which left him off line for the right that followed immediately after.

The final 15 minutes saw a renewed emphasis on single-lap runs.

Hamilton, on one of two sets of soft tyres available to him, went fastest with a 1:21.453s. His Mercedes team-mate went third best with a 1:21.730s moments later.

He completed the lap as Verstappen exited the lane to begin his qualifying simulation.

It was only a personal best through the opening sector but shot back to the top with a 1:20.998s – a 0.5s improvement on Hamilton.

Back in the Red Bull garage, Perez was out of the car with frantic work being carried out on the RB19, which stood on stands following a power unit leak.

He didn’t get a qualifying simulation as a result, leaving him on the back foot heading into the session, which this weekend prescribes the compound drivers will use throughout.

Sainz had blistering pace, logging a 1:20.912s with six minutes remaining to shoot to the top of the timesheets.

Charles Leclerc abandoned his lap when he ran wide as Lesmo 2, ruining a lap that was the fastest to the first split.

With four minutes left, the official timing screens noted a collision between Sainz and Piastri at Turn 2.

The session ended with the Spaniard fastest from Verstappen, then Hamilton, Leclerc, Fernando Alonso, Russell, Magnussen, Nico Hulkenberg, Albon, and Perez in the top 10.

Piastri ended the session 14th having been impeded by Sainz, who’d been caught dawdling on entry into the first chicane.

Liam Lawson was two places better off and impressively 0.1s faster than his Scuderia AlphaTauri team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.