» 2013 Italian GP: Hamilton tops opening practice at Monza

Lewis Hamilton has set the pace in this morning’s opening practice session for the Italian Grand Prix. The defending racewinner posted a 1:25.565 lap-time around the three-mile circuit, edging out crowd favourite Fernando Alonso by a scant three-hundredths of a second.

Despite the excellent weather conditions which greeted the field when the pit lane opened at 11:00am local time, the session began very slowly, with only the McLaren and Marussia drivers posting times in the first thirty minutes

The frontrunners eventually emerged from their slumber, with championship leader Sebastian Vettel moving to the top of the timesheets, before being usurped by Alonso, and then Hamilton.

A late flying lap from Nico Rosberg would prove enough to bump his compatriot Vettel into fourth place, while Kimi Räikkönen was fifth-quickest in his Lotus E21, which sported a longer wheelbase configuration.

The McLaren pairing of Sergio Pérez and Jenson Button were sixth and seventh respectively, with the latter placed under investigation by the FIA Stewards for his DRS being used in a prohibited zone of the circuit, a factor that the team blamed on a malfunction to the device.

Entering his final Grand Prix on European soil, Mark Webber was eighth-fastest in the sister Red Bull Racing entry, while Pastor Maldonado and Jean-Éric Vergne completed the top ten for Williams and Toro Rosso respectively.

Romain Grosjean (12th) and Felipe Massa (14th) both finished outside the top ten positions, with the latter lucky to avoid hitting the back of teammate Alonso at the end of the session. The Spaniard was attempting a routine practice start after the chequered flag had been waved, and it was a split-second reaction from his Brazilian teammate which prevented an accident between the pair.

Despite proving quickest through the speed trap, both Force India runners were also outside the top-ten. Paul di Resta was fifteenth-quickest, two spots ahead of the team’s newly-promoted reserve driver, James Calado, who had his first ever Friday practice outing, clocking up 24 trouble-free laps in Adrian Sutil’s regular car.

Aside from Massa’s near-miss with Alonso, the session featured little in the way of drama, although Nico Hülkenberg had his running in the Sauber limited by gearbox problems.

2013 Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix – Free Practice 1 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:25.565		24
2.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:25.600	+ 0.035	25
3.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:25.704	+ 0.139	25
4.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:25.753	+ 0.188	26
5.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus F1 Renault E21	1:25.941	+ 0.376	22
6.	Sergio Pérez	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:26.007	+ 0.442	24
7.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:26.035	+ 0.470	23
8.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:26.103	+ 0.538	27
9.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault FW35	1:26.149	+ 0.584	22
10.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:26.155	+ 0.590	25
11.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:26.194	+ 0.629	25
12.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Renault E21	1:26.295	+ 0.730	23
13.	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:26.387	+ 0.822	21
14.	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:26.449	+ 0.884	16
15.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:26.594	+ 1.029	13
16.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault FW35	1:26.802	+ 1.237	21
17.	James Calado	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:27.041	+ 1.476	24
18.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:27.224	+ 1.659	16
19.	Charles Pic	Caterham Renault CT03	1:27.818	+ 2.253	24
20.	Max Chilton	Marussia Cosworth MR02	1:27.869	+ 2.304	20
21.	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham Renault CT03	1:28.192	+ 2.627	21
22.	Rodolfo Gonzalez	Marussia Cosworth MR02	1:29.526	+ 3.961	26