Vettel continues to set the pace at Monza

The teams had a final opportunity to prepare for the Italian Grand Prix this morning, with a 60-minute practice session.

The conditions were still ideal with a brilliant sunshine and warm temperatures – 29°C (ambient) as the track opened.

It was business as usual at the start, i.e cars going out for an installation lap then coming back in the pits for the engineers to analyse the data. Once this operation completed, the drivers would receive the green light to kick off their working program.

Virgin and Team Lotus set the ball rolling twelve minutes in. Others followed suit and the action got underway. Kovalainen went top of the list but quickly slipped down the order. Schumacher and Rosberg stayed in the limelight for a while, trading fastest times and making some mistakes. The Mercedes pair was soon split by Button’s McLaren and Webber’s Red Bull.

It was not long before Button took over at the front. Meanwhile, his teammate Hamilton moved up in third place and World Champion Vettel slotted in fifth place. Minutes later, Webber topped the list for Red Bull with a lap marginally faster than Button’s best effort. Vettel did better as he wrapped up his first run.

Halfway through the session, the German was leading from Webber, Button, Hamilton and Rosberg. Alonso and Massa were just kicking off their first run and gently climbed up the order. They could not break into the top five, however.

Teams switched from hard to soft tyres in the last part of the session. The option rubber propelled Rosberg at the top and made him only the second man to dip under the 1’24 bracket this weekend.

His teammate Schumacher went third fastest on his first effort. The frontrunners showed their hand a bit later. Alonso improved to fourth fastest while Button went 2nd to Rosberg.

Five minutes to the chequered flags, 23 cars were on track making it for a busy end to the session.

Vettel came out of this scrap on top. He was 0.3s faster than his teammate Webber. Massa was third with Hamilton fourth and Button fifth. Ferrari ace Alonso was down in eighth place, behind both Mercedes.

Sutil and di Resta completed the top ten for Force India.