Leclerc leads final Monaco F1 practice as Vettel crashes

Charles Leclerc offered some hope of a inter-team fight for pole position in Monaco after beating both Mercedes drivers to lead final practice as Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel crashed out early on.

After seeing Mercedes pulls clear at the front of the pack in second practice on Thursday, Leclerc had written off Ferrari's chances of fighting for victory in Monaco, but the home favourite was able to rally to top spot in FP3 on Saturday afternoon.

Leclerc put in a fastest lap time of 1m11.265s on the Soft compound tyre to edge out Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas by five-hundredths of a second, leading Ferrari top the head of the field.

However, the Monegasque racer is required to see the stewards after he was deemed not to have slowed enough under a Virtual Safety Car period, putting him at risk of a sanction.

Leclerc was the sole Ferrari runner for much of the session as Vettel crashed at Turn 1 after a lock-up, damaging the front-left of his SF90 car to leave his crew with a quick repair job to complete ahead of qualifying later today.

Defending world champion Lewis Hamilton finished third overall for Mercedes, two-tenths back from Leclerc, while the Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly were both able to get within half a second of the fastest time as they finished fourth and fifth respectively.

Antonio Giovinazzi put in a star turn for Alfa Romeo en route to sixth place ahead of Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat and Haas driver Kevin Magnussen. Kimi Raikkonen ended the session ninth in the sister Alfa Romeo, while Alexander Albon completed the top 10.

Qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix takes place at 1500 CET on Saturday (1400 UK).