Lewis Hamilton top in final Italian GP practice

Lewis Hamilton set the pace in final Italian Grand Prix practice as team-mate Nico Rosberg was pipped by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton's Mercedes was 0.264 seconds quicker than Vettel, with Rosberg 0.035secs further adrift.

Williams's Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa and Pastor Maldonado's Lotus left Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in seventh.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button were in unexpectedly high 13th and 14th places as others struggled.

Like McLaren, Red Bull and Toro Rosso will take penalties for using more than their permitted number of engines and it remains to be seen in which order these will leave the six drivers at the back of the grid.

Qualifying gets under way at 13:00 BST, with coverage on the BBC Sport website from 11:30 and on BBC Radio 5 live from 13:00.

Serene Hamilton

There seems little doubt about who will be at the front after another imperious performance from Hamilton.

The world champion has looked untouchable so far this weekend and seems an almost certain bet for his 11th pole in 12 races this season.

After Friday practice, Rosberg admitted his team-mate had the edge and that he needed to work out how to match the Briton's pace through the final two corners at Ascari and Parabolica.

The German actually set the fastest time in the final part of the lap, which comprises the two demanding fast corners, but Hamilton edged him this time in the two chicanes and the Lesmo corners and remained tantalisingly out of reach.

Instead, Rosberg was surprisingly beaten by his compatriot Vettel, who showed an improvement in form after a difficult Friday as Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne was joined by Piero Ferrari - the son of founder Enzo - watching from the Ferrari garage.

Whether the red cars can maintain that pace once Mercedes turn up their engines for qualifying remains a different question.

Ferrari face stiff opposition from the Mercedes customer teams - Force India, Williams and Lotus for places behind the world champions at the front of the grid.

McLaren and Red Bull in the mire

The prospects for two grand former champions, Red Bull and McLaren, are rather grimmer.

Both teams have engine partners in Renault and Honda who are failing in their struggle to match Mercedes, falling short in both reliability and performance.

And both - as well as fellow Renault customer Toro Rosso, the Red Bull junior team - are taking penalties for changing engine parts.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was using a brand new engine that would add to the 25 grid positions worth of penalties he had already accrued, but that failed in the course of the session, team boss Christian Horner saying the problem was "terminal".

Earlier, Horner attempted to make a joke of the situation, saying the competition for who can take the most penalties was closer than that at the front of the grid.

The French company is understood to be in the final stages of completing a deal to back control of the Lotus team, which it sold to investment group Genii Capital in 2009.Renault denied Horner's claim that a development engine might not appear this year. Horner said if it did appear it would be worth only 0.15secs a lap.

Lewis Hamilton to collaborate with Drake

2014 Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton says he has been working on a collaboration with rapper Drake.

Listen to Drake on Gaana.com

"A collaboration with Drake is on the cards. We will release something at some point but I'm just recording for fun at the moment," Hamilton told mirror.co.uk.

Offering no further details about his collaboration with Drake, Hamilton went on addressing some personal issues, including life at 30 and his new blond hair.

"I'm the happiest I've ever been. Turning 30 has been amazing. I feel like I take everything in my stride now and I feel more confident. It has been the best year ever and I'm racing better than ever," he said.

Lewis Hamilton fronts Mercedes-Benz’s star-studded campaign

It’s that time of the year and race fever is about to hit Singapore shores.

Just in time for the Grand Prix in Singapore, the global Mercedes-Benz is launching a celebrity-studded storytelling campaign to spotlight its SUV family. According to a press statement from the company, the campaign is to accompany the market launch of the new GLE, GLE Coupé and GLC vehicles.

The campaign positions Mercedes-Benz as the brand with the broadest selection of SUVs in the competitive environment. It aims to accentuate this under the overriding claim “At home in every terrain”. The press statement also explains the TV ad which shows the world of each SUV in conjunction with a celebrity ambassador. Along with Mercedes’ race car driver, Lewis Hamilton, also featured are professional surfer Garrett McNamara, top model Petra Němcová, show jumper Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and adventurer Mike Horn.

“We are consciously adopting a new approach for the SUV campaign. Instead of advertising individual vehicles separately, we are presenting the entire family of Mercedes off-roaders. We will be telling exciting stories and creating emotional visual worlds which show each vehicle in its perfect environment – always flanked by the other family members. At the same time the campaign will familiarise people with our new SUV nomenclature,” Jens Thiemer, vice president marketing Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars said.

The TV ad tells how the familiar celebrities master different challenges, accompanied by their SUV. The TV ad is available in various lengths, ranging from ten to 60 seconds and, depending on market requirements, can be used with a different line-up. In Germany the TV ad will be broadcast from 23 August 2015. Furthermore, the personal stories of the celebrities will also be hosted on an online microsite as part of the campaign.

Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton to pick up speed at super-fast Monza track

New father Nico Rosberg has plenty to be happy about right now but Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton intends to be smiling just as much after this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.

Sunday's (Monday NZ time) race, at a super-fast track that faces an uncertain future despite its historic status as a temple to Ferrari, could see Hamilton accelerate ever closer to his third Formula One world championship.

"At the moment it doesn't look like it is possible to beat Hamilton," said retired triple champion Niki Lauda after the Briton won last month's Belgian Grand Prix to go 28 points clear of Rosberg with eight races remaining.

"If Lewis does not make a mistake in the next couple of races, it will be hard for Nico," said the Mercedes team's non-executive chairman.

A dramatic, high-speed blowout in practice at Spa, coupled with a similar one on race day for Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, did little for Rosberg's peace of mind ahead of the birth of his daughter last Sunday.

Any sleepless nights since then will have been more to do with his home life, however, with Pirelli's post-Belgium enquiry expected to exonerate their tyres from any structural failure.

Safety will still be a prime concern at the fastest track on the calendar, with the paddock community mourning the death in America last week of British IndyCar driver and former F1 racer Justin Wilson.

Vettel, furious after his scare at Spa, will be setting his sights on coming back with a different kind of bang in his first race at Monza in Ferrari's red overalls.

A victory in front of the passionate home fans, at the circuit where he took his first F1 victory with Toro Rosso in 2008, would make Vettel the first since Stirling Moss in the 1950s to win the Italian Grand Prix with three different teams.

The four times champion cannot be ruled out, with Ferrari likely to be Mercedes' closest rivals given that Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat are expected to take engine penalties, but Hamilton remains the clear favourite.

Last year he won from pole position and set the fastest lap at Monza before going on to win six of the last seven races and take his second title.

This time, he arrives on the back of 10 poles in 11 races and six wins to Rosberg's three.

If he wins at Monza on Sunday for the third time in his career, Hamilton will become the first driver to take successive Italian Grand Prix victories since his compatriot Damon Hill with Williams in 1994.

Monza's own future will also be in the spotlight, with the circuit still to agree a new contract after 2016 and more talks with commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone sure to take place over the weekend.

For Hamilton, as much as any Formula One fan, a calendar without Monza would be unthinkable.

"It's an awesome track - so fast and with some of the most passionate fans you'll see anywhere in the world," said the Mercedes driver. "Racing in Italy brings back a lot of good memories for me and I'd love to add to those this weekend."