Lewis Hamilton has set aside widespread speculation about his future to top the opening day of practice ahead of Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Amid suggestions that the long-time McLaren man could be Mercedes-bound next season, Hamilton lapped the high-speed venue in a best time of 1:25.29s to edge out team-mate Jenson Button in the second of the two 90 minute sessions.
Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were third and fourth respectively in their Ferraris, despite the former following up Practice 1 engine problems with time-sapping brake and gearbox issues in the second session.
Nico Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen completed the top six, with the Finn some 0.6s quicker than his 12th placed stand-in team-mate Jerome d’Ambrosio.
The Red Bull Racing entries of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel sandwiched D’Ambrosio in 11th and 13th respectively on a day where the two championship contenders simply struggled for one-lap pace.
The pair were a similarly lacklustre ninth (Webber) and 11th (Vettel) in the opening session, with the German a full second slower than his pace-setting countryman Michael Schumacher.
At the foot of the Practice 1 times was Ma Qing Hua, who became the first Chinese driver to take part in a Formula 1 session on a Grand Prix weekend by making an appearance in Narain Karthikeyan’s HRT. Ma ended the 90 minutes less than two seconds shy of team-mate Pedro de la Rosa, who is celebrating his 100th Grand Prix appearance this weekend.
See below for the full Practice 1 result
|
Pos |
Driver |
Team |
Time/Retired |
Gap |
| 1 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:25.422 | |
| 2 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:25.723 | 0.301 |
| 3 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:25.762 | 0.340 |
| 4 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:25.800 | 0.378 |
| 5 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:25.861 | 0.439 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:25.944 | 0.522 |
| 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 1:26.046 | 0.624 |
| 8 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:26.323 | 0.901 |
| 9 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:26.390 | 0.968 |
| 10 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1:26.504 | 1.082 |
| 11 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:26.508 | 1.086 |
| 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1:26.518 | 1.096 |
| 13 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Renault | 1:26.641 | 1.219 |
| 14 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:26.746 | 1.324 |
| 15 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | Lotus-Renault | 1:27.180 | 1.758 |
| 16 | Jules Bianchi | Force India-Mercedes | 1:27.192 | 1.770 |
| 17 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | 1:27.373 | 1.951 |
| 18 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 1:27.789 | 2.367 |
| 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 1:27.855 | 2.433 |
| 20 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 1:28.578 | 3.156 |
| 21 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:28.751 | 3.329 |
| 22 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:29.207 | 3.785 |
| 23 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 1:29.331 | 3.909 |
| 24 | Qing Hua Ma | HRT-Cosworth | 1:31.239 | 5.817 |
See below for the Practice 2 result
|
Pos |
Driver |
Team |
Time/Retired |
Gap |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:25.290 | |
| 2 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:25.328 | 0.038 |
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:25.348 | 0.058 |
| 4 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:25.430 | 0.140 |
| 5 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:25.446 | 0.156 |
| 6 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 1:25.504 | 0.214 |
| 7 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:25.546 | 0.256 |
| 8 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1:25.547 | 0.257 |
| 9 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:26.068 | 0.778 |
| 10 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:26.094 | 0.804 |
| 11 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:26.104 | 0.814 |
| 12 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | Lotus-Renault | 1:26.157 | 0.867 |
| 13 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:26.394 | 1.104 |
| 14 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1:26.404 | 1.114 |
| 15 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | 1:26.724 | 1.434 |
| 16 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:26.730 | 1.440 |
| 17 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 1:26.783 | 1.493 |
| 18 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 1:26.841 | 1.551 |
| 19 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 1:26.864 | 1.574 |
| 20 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 1:27.222 | 1.932 |
| 21 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:27.944 | 2.654 |
| 22 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:27.968 | 2.678 |
| 23 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 1:28.575 | 3.285 |
| 24 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1:28.779 | 3.489 |
See below for Speedcafe.com’s Italian Grand Prix Race Guide
