Italian GP Free Practice One review - Hamilton on the pace

Lewis Hamilton dominated this morning's first practice session in Monza by finishing quickest, almost a second up on his nearest rival and team mate Jenson Button. Having described this season as one of his worst in F1, a fresh determination appears to have entered Lewis' mindset for the remaining races in 2011 and ending FP1 0.921 quicker than the rest of the field signals his intentions.

Button was second to complete a Mclaren one-two while championship leader Seb Vettel, a winner here for Toro Rosso in 2008, was third ahead of his Red Bull team mate Mark Webber. Adrian Sutil, who has impressed of late in the Force India, completed the top five. On home soil, though, Ferrari appeared to struggle and Fernando Alonso was 7th fastest, three seconds adrift of Hamilton.

On a green track there were to be many off-track excursions, with Michael Schumacher's visit to the Parabolica gravel trap the most notable of the session. Elsewhere, Heikki Kovalainen had to stop on track due to a gearbox problem after he had managed just ten laps while Virgin did not enjoy a productive session either. Jerome D'Ambrosio was forced to halt at the first chicane with smoke coming from the back of his car, while team mate Timo Glock mainly completed installation laps as he test several new parts for the Virgin team.

Friday Practice Session 1
POS	DRIVER	NATIONALITY	ENTRANT	TIME
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Britain	McLaren-Mercedes	1:23.865
2.	Jenson Button	Britain	McLaren-Mercedes	1:24.786
3.	Sebastian Vettel	Germany	Red Bull-Renault	1:25.231
4.	Mark Webber	Australia	Red Bull-Renault	1:25.459
5.	Adrian Sutil	Germany	Force India-Mercedes	1:26.550
6.	Vitaly Petrov	Russia	Renault	1:26.625
7.	Felipe Massa	Brazil	Ferrari	1:26.647
8.	Fernando Alonso	Spain	Ferrari	1:26.676
9.	Felipe Massa	Brazil	Ferrari	1:26.694
10.	Sergio Perez	Mexico	Sauber-Ferrari	1:26.696
11.	Jaime Alguersuari	Spain	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:26.699
12.	Michael Schumacher	Germany	Mercedes GP	1:26.826
13.	Nico Hulkenberg	Germany	Force India-Mercedes	1:26.996
14.	Rubens Barrichello	Brazil	Williams-Cosworth	1:27.365
15.	Kamui Kobayashi	Japan	Sauber-Ferrari	1:27.385
16.	Pastor Maldonado	Venezuela	Williams-Cosworth	1:27.433
17.	Bruno Senna	Brazil	Renault	1:27.492
18.	Sebastien Buemi	Switzerland	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:27.743
19.	Nico Rosberg	Germany	Mercedes GP	1:27.492
20.	Heikki Kovalainen	Finland	Lotus-Renault	1:29.539
21.	Karun Chandhok	India	Lotus-Renault	1:30.148
22.	Daniel Ricciardo	Australia	HRT-Cosworth	1:30.609
23.	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Italy	HRT-Cosworth	1:30.619
24.	Timo Glock	Germany	Virgin-Cosworth	1:31.052
25.	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Belgium	Virgin-Cosworth	1:31.899

Josh.