Image source, Getty

With a couple of trips to the Red Bull Ring in the Austrian Alps already ticked off, the photographers have hard drives full of fast cars on gorgeous backdrops this season.

Is there anybody out there who hasn't fallen under Mugello's spell?

It had been a free-for-all in terms of track limits until now, with Formula 1 bosses blaming the lack of timing loops that track the cars through corners at Mugello.

The gravel run-offs mean drivers are walking a tightrope, pushing for every inch and knowing that they are likely to be spinning like Darcy Bussell if they overcook.

Image source, Getty Images

Formula 1 drivers have to do a lot of work for sponsors, smiling for the cameras and keeping the team coffers full to drive development.

But sometimes the dirty work combines with the fun stuff.

Ferrari had a filming day at Mugello back in June, giving Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel the chance to have a little blast around, even if they were limited to demo tyres rather than their race weekend footwear.

"It probably helped us also to get in a rhythm of the track, where for all of the other drivers, it was a new track," said Leclerc on Friday.

Is that advantage going to spill over to qualifying?

Pirelli have packed the hardest compounds for the trip to Mugello. Probably wise. The pace, turns and g-forces are likley to mean maximum wear for for the field today.

An added factor is the hot weather which increase the degradation.

Will those who excel in the dark arts of tyre management have a decisive edge on Sunday?

Image source, Getty

Racing Point's Sergio Perez will be one place lower on the starting grid tomorrow than he is on the timing sheets today.

The Mexican is carrying a one-place grid penalty after he came out of the pit-lane and collided with Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen during Saturday's practice session.

A bit of a bummer for Perez who has learned this week that he will be giving up his spot to Vettel in 2021.

Image source, Getty

This is the first weekend where the Williams team is without the Williams family.

The team are under new ownership and one of the big chiefs is James Matthews, who you may know better as the other half of Pippa Middleton.

He knows his way around a race track having raced in Formula Renault in his younger days.

Image source, Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton has been 0.530, 0.207 and 0.083 seconds off the pace in Practice sessions one, two and three respectively.

You don't have to have a doctorate in statistics to see the trend there. He is getting better and better as he gets more practice on this relatively unknown circuit.

Image source, Getty Images

At times this season, it has felt like Lewis Hamilton would still be one step ahead of the rest of the field even if he left his Mercedes in garage and ventured out on track on his pitlane scooter.

Might Mugello be the circuit that undoes all those usual certainties though?

Its helter-skelter series of full-bore curves and roller-coaster rises and dips is a challenge the world champion admits (or claims) he is still getting used to.

Team-mate Valtteri Bottas was faster in P 1, 2 and 3 so far this weekend. Will Hamilton pull something out of the bag when it matters. He usually does.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, EPA

Valtteri Bottas has completed a clean sweep of practice sessions at the Tuscan Grand Prix.

The Finn, who was also fastest in both sessions on Friday, was 0.017 seconds quicker than Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.

World champion Lewis Hamilton, who admitted on Friday that he was “not driving well enough”, was 0.083secs off the pace in third place.

At face value, the results suggest Red Bull might be in a position to challenge Mercedes for pole position in qualifying, which starts at 1400 BST.

But Verstappen has never got closer to pole than 0.5secs all year, so it seems unlikely so much will have changed just a week since the last race at Monza a week ago.

The drivers have been revelling in the demands of the fast and sweeping Mugello circuit, which is hosting a Grand Prix for the first time.

The track’s most famous corners, a couple of right-handers called Arrabbiata, are being taken flat out at more than 170mph.

The event marks Ferrari’s 1,000th world championship Grand Prix and the team seem more competitive than they have been for a couple of races.

Their best qualifying position at the last two races in Belgium and Italy was 13th, but Charles Leclerc was seventh fastest in final practice. His Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel, who has been struggling for much of the year, was down in 17th.

Racing Point’s Lance Stroll was fourth, ahead of surprise Italian Grand Prix winner Pierre Gasly’s Alpha Tauri and the second Racing Point of Sergio Perez, who is looking for a drive in 2021 after the team signed Vettel to partner Stroll for the debut of their new iteration of Aston Martin.

McLaren appear to be struggling, with Carlos Sainz 11th, and Lando Norris, who crashed at Turn Three in second practice, 19th.

Jennie Gow
BBC Radio 5 live pit-lane reporter

Just speaking to Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton says he's not quite happy with the balance of the car at the moment.

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live

McLaren have not arrived in good shape for this grand prix. New circuit and basically, they have never found the sweet spot in the car...for now...

Maybe they can try something different for qualifying but it's not a long turnaround. You can't turn the car upside down before qualifying - you wouldn't want to either!

All done.

Valtteri Bottas is quickest in the final practice session, just as he was in the two on Friday.

1. Valterri Bottas 1:16.350

2. Max Verstappen +0.017

3. Lewis Hamilton +0.083

4. Lance Stroll +0.582

5. Pierre Gasly +0.696

6. Sergio Perez +0.811

7. Charles Leclerc +0.958

8.Alex Albon +1.008

9. Danni Kvyat +1.097

10. Romain Grosjean +1.105

It looking pretty familiar at the top end of the timing sheets. The right drivers, but maybe in the wrong order?

Image source, Getty Images

Max Verstappen ekes out a little more time out of the nooks and crannies of this circuit. The Dutchman is up to second and only two hundredth off leader Valtteri Bottas.

The top five looks like this:

1. Valtteri Bottas 1:16.530

2. Max Verstappen +0.017

3. Lewis Hamilton +0.083

4. Lance Stroll +0.582

5. Pierre Gasly +0.696

Punchy from Monza winner Pierre Gasly who climbs to fourth in his AlphaTauri, seven tenths off the pace set by Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes.

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live

I still think Mercedes re going to be the team to beat here this weekend. We saw at Monza in FP3 they were nothing special before unleashing in qualifying.

But Verstappen certainly does look more competitive, every single practice session he's more competitive, and while the gaps are big, it was only a couple of hundredths that saw Verstappen off the front row in Belgium a few weeks ago.

He might not challenge for pole but he can maybe pip at least one of the Mercedes to the front row - and that can change the dynamics of the race.