Max Verstappen confirms that he belongs in a class alongside the Mercedes. The Dutchman is third 0.162 seconds slower than Hamilton, but 0.45 seconds faster than Red Bull team-mate Alex Albon in fourth.

Daniel Ricciardo is fifth after a punchy lap.

AGL: I predict zero overtaking tomorrow, this circuit looks terrible for racing.

Tanya Smith: Vettel sounds like he's mentally checked out of the race and the team. Nor fair on his side of the garage.

Jeremiah: What a contrast for Gasly! Winning Monza and now being eliminated in Q1 at Mugello. He will have to work hard if he was to get another podium finish tomorrow.

Lewis Hamilton has six pole positions this season.

The world champion has thrown down the gauntlet with his opening lap.

A 1:15.309 and Bottas.....can't match it!

Bottas comes home 0.013 seconds slower.

After the confetti and champagne of last weekend in Monza, Pierre Gasly will have to kick his heels for the rest of qualifying.

Q2 is under way and the Mercedes are already out and into the fray.

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live

Hero to zero for Pierre Gasly! Winner one week, then out in Q1 the next. Both runs very poor for him. He's had a real shocker there.

Vettel: "Did we get through or not?"

Ferrari engineer: "Yes you got through"

Vettel: "Oh"

A frantic end to the session. Pierre Gasly swears in French as he is sucked down to 16th and elimination. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel survives in 15th by five hundredths of a second.

Antonio Giovinazzi, George Russell, Nicholas Latifi and Kevin Magnussen also fail to progress to Q2.

There is just over 0.35 seconds between Alex Albon in sixth and Kimi Raikkonen in 17th.

It is piano-wire tight in the midfield.

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live

Super tight for everyone from Sergio Perez down in fifth - which shows Lance Stroll has done a great job in fourth, three tenths ahead of his team-mate and looking safe to stay in the pits and not have to go again. Everyone else surely will go again from Perez to the drop zone.

Six minutes to go, Pierre Gasly, Kimi Raikkonen, George Russell, Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen are 16th to 20th respectively and due to fall the wrong side of the velvet rope for the next qualifying session.

Ferrari are not going to crown their 1000th World Championship race with a visit to the top step, barring some Monza-style madness.

Sebastian Vettel is 13th in the standing so far, 1.6 seconds off Bottas, while Charles Leclerc is seventh.

JJ Jackson: Am i alone in thinking Racing Point results disappointing in light of copying row. Was is worth it?

Image source, EPA

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live

Mercedes are already showing a bit more of their pace. Max Verstappen kept them pretty well pegged back in practice but now first lap on, all on soft tyres, Mercedes half a second clear.

Here come the big guns.

Valtteri Bottas goes to the top of the pops with a lap of 1:15.749, trumping team-mate Lewis Hamilton by two hundredths. That is a new track record.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen is half a second back off Bottas in third, with the Racing Point duo of Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez filling out the top five.

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live

New circuit for pretty much everyone but George Russell missed third practice today - yesterday he was pretty close with team-mate Nicholas Latifi anyway - but he's missed the most crucial hour of practice, so Russell needs to get straight out there as a result.

Nicholas Latifi is a tenth of second quicker than Williams team-mate George Russell as they register the first lap times of qualifying.

Considering Russell is making up for a missed practice session, that is not too shabby for the Briton.

Williams George Russell, who missed out on practice earlier today with a brake problem, is going to make the most of the track time available.

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live

The track limits shouldn't be a problem. It's on the curved straight, beyond the final corner.

Flat out, easy flat out. There's a marginal gain if you straight line it but the drivers will be in full control and they'll just have to keep their car within the track limit.

Shouldn't be any concern.

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There was less than a tenth of a second between Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton at the top for the FP3 timesheets. Let's see how they split in qualifying.

The helicopters are circling and flag has dropped.

Drivers are heading from motorhomes to garages, overalls rolled down to the waist and face masks in place. Qualifying is almost upon us.