Sawt Falasteen - McLaren's Norris fastest at final Italian GP practice

McLaren's Norris topped the pile at Monza with a time of one minute and 19.331, just 0.021sec ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc who gave home fans hope of a strong showing for the Scuderia on home soil by clocking his best time on his final lap.

Norris was 0.165sec ahead of Australian teammate Piastri who was third fastest and leads the drivers' standings by 34 points before Sunday's GP at the "Temple of Speed".

Piastri has that handy lead over Norris thanks to a mechanical failure which forced the Briton out of last weekend's Dutch GP in the final laps.

Both Norris and Piastri posted their fastest times shortly after bolting on soft tyres for a bone dry circuit at Monza, where glorious sunshine and pleasant temperatures are forecast for the rest of the day with qualifying starting at at 1600 local time (1400 GMT).

Reigning four-time champion Max Verstappen was just behind Piastri and 0.167sec behind Norris, whose bad luck at Zandvoort led to the Red Bull driver taking second spot on the podium.

Lewis Hamilton, who has had a tough first season with Ferrari, was 0.267sec off the pace.

The seven-time world champion hasn't won a single GP and has failed to even claim a podium finish with Ferrari, who will be backed by an army of fans all weekend.

He is 200 points behind Piastri and has a five-place grid penalty for this weekend after failing to slow down in a yellow flag zone on his way to the grid at the Dutch GP.

W.AbuLaban--SF-PST