Lewis Hamilton is pipped to pole for Saturday's sprint race at the Italian Grand Prix by Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas by just 0.096 seconds with title rival Max Verstappen down in third and George Russell in 15th!

Stunning lap from Bottas who goes quickest with a 1.19.5 and Hamilton can't beat him as the Brit goes second with a time 0.096 slower.

Verstappen will start third ahead of Norris, Ricciardo, Gasly, Sainz, LeClerc, Perez and Giovinazzi.

It was a poor first lap from the Finnish driver but a stunning lap second time around but he will be starting at the back of the grid in Sunday's race even if he is on pole for tomorrow.

Nobody is really improving so far other than Gasly who is getting a cracking tow behind Verstappen.

The Dutchman doesn't improve and Gasly goes fifth.

Perez leads his team-mate Verstappen onto their second lap but the Dutchman hasn't improved in his first sector.

Hamilton did not improve on his time from Q2 and you'd expect he can go quicker if he can get a good tow.

Bottas was down in fifth and Mercedes will want him alongside Hamilton on that front row tomorrow to put himself between his teammate and Verstappen.

Big shout out to Norris who was only 0.065 off Hamilton in third. Could he cause a massive shock result?

Hamilton goes quickest from Verstappen! Norris is in third, Ricciardo 4th and Bottas fifth.

A replay of Bottas shows he went wide at the second chicane which would have lost him some time.

But it's very close up front. Verstappen was only 0.017 behind Hamilton after getting a great tow. 

Gasly was next quickest in 6th followed by LeClerc, Sainz, Perez and Giovinazzi who has not yet set a time.

Bottas is the first man out and he is followed by team mate Hamilton and it's the Brit who sets the quicker first tenth.

He's quite far behind his team mate on track so is not picking up a huge tow. Verstappen meanwhile matches Hamilton in the second sector.

Off we go for Q3 to see who will start at the front for tomorrow's Sprint Race.

Replays of that pit lane incident and there could be a few teams penalised for unsafe releases!

FIA could be very busy after the session.

Mercedes didn't need to improve but Norris and Verstappen improved with the top four separated by under three tenths.

The chequered flag is out and the bottom five are Vettel, Stroll, Alonso, Ocon and Russell.

Hamilton is quickest again from Bottas, Norris, Verstappen and Ricciardo. Perez just scrapes through in P10. 

That pit-lane incident will be investigated after the session. Could be a penalty for Aston Martin.

Madness in the pit lane as Aston Martin release Stroll into the path of Hamilton and an Alpine mechanic has to move out of the way to give Stroll space.

Well well well interesting developments at Mercedes.

Bottas has taken a whole new power unit and he will start at the back for Sunday's Grand Prix.

Wherever he qualifies today will be where he starts for tomorrow's Sprint Race.

There will be a smile on Mercedes team members after those first laps in Q2. Hamilton was a massive seven tenths quicker than his title rival.

Alonso is down in P15 and we can see why as he runs wide at the first turn and comes out next to Perez who saves his hand at the Spaniard.

Norris and Ricciardo go into P3 and P4 and they are less than half a second off the Mercedes. Gasly is in P5 ahead of Verstappen, Giovinazzi, Stroll, LeClerc and Perez.

The Mexican Red Bull driver says he needs a tow.

Perez is the first man to set a time for the session putting in a 1:21.1 before Verstappen goes four tenths faster and then Bottas goes quickest with a 1:20.0! That's a huge lap!

Or we think before Hamilton goes into the 1:19's!

This time it's the Red Bull drivers who lead the way for their warm-up laps. Plenty of improvement needed if they can challenge the Mercedes cars.

Sky F1 are reporting there is an issue with LeClerc's Ferrari but he has come out for his lap.

No penalty necessary for the unsafe releasing for Mazepin in Q1.

Unsurprisingly it got very messy as drivers were setting their quick times coming up against slow cars.

Gasly had to pass SIX cars around the outside of Ascari chicane but he made it through.

Green light comes on for Q2.

Late drama as Russell has made it through as Tsunoda has had a lap time deleted and is demoted into the bottom five behind Russell.

Game on still for the newly announced 2022 Mercedes driver.

Despite his late improvement Russell is out after Q1 along with team mate Latifi, Schumacher, Kubica and Mazepin.

Norris set a good time to go up to third behind the two Mercedes of Hamilton and Bottas with Verstappen fourth.

Sainz rounded out the top five ahead of Giovinazzi who did a stellar job and LeClerc.

There is around 12 cars going slowly down the back straight could be messy.

Vettel gets himself into good space though so he has a good chance of improving. 

Mazepin says Schumacher needs to get a move on though the German is stuck behind a train of cars so not much he can do there!

Good lap from Russell who is up to 11th with Latifi also improving to 13th.

Vettel and Ocon are in the bottom five and you'd expect they can get out of that danger zone.

Verstappen has gone up to third with Sainz in fourth and LeClerc fifth.

Russell is now on a flyer as he looks to get out of the bottom five.

Bottom five currently are Russell, LeClerc, Schumacher, Mazepin and Kubica.

An incident between Mazepin and Kubica has been noted though we haven't seen what happened there.

Norris makes an improvement to third and now the McLarens are running P3 and P4. 

Nearly a horrible moment for Gasly as he has to go around the outside of about five cars towards the end of the lap and his lap time gets ruined by a Ferrari in the middle of the chicane.

Surely something the FIA has to look into going forward.

The chaos has started early with Verstappen asking 'what the f*** are they doing' after he gets balked by other drivers on their out laps.

There is a huge cluster of cars together so it could get messy.

There is also an incident being investigated involving Mazepin and LeClerc as the Haas team released their man directly in front of LeClerc in the pits.

Not at all comfortable for Verstappen who will have to put in another lap as his first time was only good enough for P9. The Dutchman like Tsunoda dropped a tyre onto the gravel.

His team mate Perez didn't go much better but is two places higher.

The Ferrari's came into the pits to change tyres and are back out.

Hamilton with a flying lap to go quickest and he is two tenths quicker than Bottas.

The track is ramping up with Ricciardo, Gasly and Giovinazzi also climbing into the top five.

Meanwhile LeClerc was on the radio concerned that his car might have an issue. Ferrari didn't seem too keen to talk over the radio over any potential problems.

Max Verstappen goes P1 but Lando Norris behind him is setting quickest sectors.

It's a good lap for the McLaren driver and he goes four tenths quicker than the Dutchman. That McLaren has some pace it looks.

Mick Schumacher has already had his lap time disallowed even before he set a lap. If you run  wide at the last corner it also means your next lap time is disallowed and the Haas driver ran wide on his out lap.

LeClerc is the first to cross the line before Sainz gets the benefit of the tow to go three tenths quicker.

Tsunoda meanwhile kicks up a bit of gravel as he runs a wheel off the track but nothing too major.

There wasn't any mad rush to leave the pits but the drivers eventually come out led by the Ferrari pair of LeClerc and Sainz.

The green light is displayed and off we go for the first part of qualifying to decide pole position for the Sprint Race.

The first practice session saw a number of laps deleted for drivers running wide at the final turn.

Lando Norris was only 12th during the session but would have been much higher if he had not run wide and had his lap time removed. Norris could be a potential contender to make the top five today.

Charles LeClerc made the same mistake twice, while Fernando Alonso and Mick Schumacher also had lap times deleted.

Not long to go now until qualifying gets underway!

There have been signs of improvement for Ferrari this season but it still feels a long time ago since Charles LeClerc took victory at Monza in 2019.

The Tifosi who weren't in attendance last year would love to see LeClerc and Sainz battle it out at the front this weekend.

But the drivers are expecting a tough weekend at a track which doesn't really suit the car, with Sainz admitting that their aim will be to make the top eight.

Max Verstappen holds a three point lead going into the weekend after his victory at the Dutch Grand Prix in front of an electric crowd.

After winning at the farcical Belgian GP, Verstappen was made to work hard for his victory last week beating Lewis Hamilton who pushed him all the way before the Brit's late pit-stop.

It will be a tough challenge for Red Bull this weekend at a track which has historically suited the Mercedes car. If they can beat the champions here, Red Bull will fancy their chances of beating them everywhere. 

It's been a hectic week in the driver market with the big news that George Russell will drive alongside Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes in 2022.

He replaces Valtteri Bottas who joins Alfa Romeo to replace the retiring Kimi Raikkonen. Talking of the Iceman, Raikkonen is not in action this week following his positive Covid test before the Dutch GP and Robert Kubica will again stand in his place.

Also good news to see Alex Albon will be back on the grid in 2022. The former Red Bull driver replaces his good friend Russell in the vacant Williams seat.

The tow at Monza is hugely powerful in comparison to most other tracks and in past years you have seen drivers squabbling for position to set themselves up for the perfect lap.

It led to some hairy moments last year with Kimi Raikkonen almost clattering into the back of Esteban Ocon.

So don't be too surprised if the first part of qualifying in particular turns into a bit of a mess!

If there was any circuit on the F1 calendar you would expect to suit the Mercedes package then it is Monza.

So perhaps no surprise earlier today Lewis Hamilton was quickest by 0.452 seconds to title rival Max Verstappen.

Interesting to note that Hamilton's time was set on the medium tyre while Verstappen's was set on the quicker soft compound. 

As you might remember the Sprint Race format was first introduced for the British Grand Prix weekend earlier this season.

That time Lewis Hamilton took pole on Friday but started the Grand Prix in second after losing out to Max Verstappen in the Sprint Race. And we all remember what happened between Hamilton and Verstappen that weekend!

There is still doubt in the paddock over the format and whether it should be used going forward so should be an interesting weekend to see how it plays out this weekend.

And welcome all to Sportsmail's live coverage of Friday qualifying ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.

When there's qualifying on a Friday you know something's different this weekend and that's because the Sprint Race format is back for the second time this season.

Today's qualifying will set up the order for tomorrow's Sprint Race which will then determine the order for the main event on Sunday.

Kieran Lynch here with you today and I'll bring all the build-up, updates and result with the session set to get underway at 5pm.