Valtteri Bottas controversially finished fastest despite appearing to set an illegal lap during Practice 3 at the Italian Grand Prix.

The Finn posted a 1m20.089s as teams prepared for qualifying, but looked to have gone all four wheels off track through the Parabolica which usually would see all lap times deleted.

He would lead the two McLarens in second and third, as Carlos Sainz jumped up to second on his final run ahead of teammate Lando Norris.

Daniel Ricciardo was fourth as the Renault-powered teams shone over a single lap, however, there was trouble for the Australian shortly after as his car ground to a halt with an apparent fuel pump issue.

Lewis Hamilton was down in fifth in the second Mercedes. And was involved in a scary moment late on as he had to take avoiding action on the approach to Parabolica to avoid a Haas and a Williams running side-by-side.

Max Verstappen was fastest initially on the medium compound, outpacing Mercedes on softs, but couldn’t improve on the supposed faster tyre and fell down to sixth, just ahead of teammate Alex Albon in seventh.

Esteban Ocon was eighth as the two Racing Points of Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10.

Notable by their absence were Ferrari as Charles Leclerc was 11th and Sebastian Vettel 15th.

Also, after a strong Friday, AlphaTauri slipped back on Saturday morning with Pierre Gasly 12th and Daniil Kvyat 13th.

The gaps though remain incredibly close as the Russian was less than nine-tenths behind Bottas’ suspect lap.

Indeed, the battle to make Q2 looks set to be between Vettel, Haas, Alfa Romeo and Williams as they appeared a small step behind the rest of the midfield.

Full times from Practice 3 can be seen below:

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