MONZA, Italy (Reuters) – Red Bull’s Formula One leader Max Verstappen was fastest in final practice on Saturday for the Italian Grand Prix, but Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc looked a good bet for pole position at his team’s home race.
Nine of the 20 drivers are carrying penalties for Sunday’s race and Verstappen, who leads Leclerc by a massive 109 points in the championship after 15 of 22 races, is one of them with a drop of five places on the starting grid.
Leclerc was the fastest driver on the timesheets without a penalty, lapping 0.347 slower than Verstappen’s best effort of one minute 21.252 seconds.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, third and fourth respectively, both have penalties — the latter enough to drop him to the back of the grid, and the Mexican in line for a 10-place demotion from wherever he qualifies.
Mercedes’ seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is also due to go to the back of the grid, while Alpine’s Esteban Ocon has a five-place penalty.
Hamilton was 10th fastest and just slower than Ocon, whose team mate Fernando Alonso was fifth and looking good without a penalty, while McLaren’s Lando Norris was sixth.
Others with penalties are Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, Haas pair Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher — all 15 places — and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who is headed for the back of the grid.
Dutch driver Nyck de Vries made his competitive F1 debut as a stand-in at Williams after Alex Albon was ruled out by appendicitis.
De Vries was 14th on the timing screens, with team mate Nicholas Latifi 13th.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, Editing by Hugh Lawson)
