McLaren lead the way in Italy

The final European round of the season got underway this morning with a first 90-minute free practice session. It opened up under clear skies and brilliant sunshine with temperatures expected to climb to a maximum 28°C.

It was business as usual at the start of the session with the customary installation laps. Most of the teams brought a variety of wings to suit the characteristics of the fast and low downforce circuit of Monza. In such perfect conditions they were able to assess them thoroughly.

Fifteen minutes into the session, Virgin’s Jérôme d’Ambrosio set the first benchmark. Some minutes later, it looked like it would be smashed by McLaren’s Button but the Briton dived in the pitlane instead of completing his first flying lap of the day.

Alonso then left the pits, much to the delight of the tifosi, but only stayed out for another installation lap. Cars kept coming in and out of the pits for a while and, as the first third of the session elapsed, Daniel Ricciardo kicked off his first run of the morning.

He swiftly lowered d’Ambrosio’s benchmark and took over at the front. The session then slowly came to life as more drivers joined the track. Ricciardo slipped through the order as his rivals completed their timed laps. Alguersuari topped the timesheet ahead of Hulkenberg and Kobayashi.

RBR then sent its drivers on track and it was not long before Sebastian Vettel took over at the front. The German gently upped his pace as his teammate Mark Webber was demoted to third place by Lewis Hamilton. The McLaren driver moved on top next time round, while Webber took second and Alonso moved up to P4 behind Vettel.

Hamilton further increased his pace and was the first driver to break the 1’24 barrier. As the top four drivers wrapped up their first run, Jenson Button moved up the order and slotted in 2nd place, 0.8s behind his teammate.

Team Lotus had a troubled morning, with steering wheel issues for Karun Chandhok and gearbox problems for Heikki Kovalainen. The Finn eventually had to park his car by the side of the track, at the first Lesmo, thirty minutes to the chequered flag.

The frontrunners came back out for a second run and Vettel improved to 2nd, thus splitting the McLarens. Webber was fourth, less than a second slower than Hamilton. Fifth-placed Petrov was two seconds down.

With fifteen minutes remaining, d’Ambrosio pulled off at the first chicane with smoke coming out of his Virgin.

In the final ten minutes, Jenson Button restored a McLaren one-two at the top of the timesheets. In the meantime, Hamilton improved his mark to comfort his authority on the pack. He concluded the session with a 0.9s advantage over his teammate. Vettel was third, 1.3s off Hamilton’s pace. Webber was fourth.

Sutil was up in fifth place for Force India with Petrov sixth and Ferrari’s Alonso a low-key seventh. Massa, Pérez and Alguersuari completed the top ten.