Lewis Hamilton posted the fastest time in Friday’s first practice session for the Italian Grand Prix, with Formula One championship leader Sebastian Vettel fourth quickest.
Hamilton, who won at Monza last year, set a time of 1 minute, 25.565 seconds – 0.035 seconds faster than Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso.
Nico Rosberg was 0.139 seconds slower than his Mercedes teammate. Hamilton has qualified in pole position in the past four races, while his team have done so in eight of the past nine.
Vettel, the three-time defending F1 champion who leads Alonso by 46 points, was 0.188 seconds behind Hamilton. Vettel won at Monza in 2011.
The field was tightly packed at a high-speed Monza track, with less than half a second separating Hamilton from Jenson Button in seventh. There was less than a second gap between the top 14, with Ferrari driver Felipe Massa only 0.884 seconds slower than Hamilton.
Button teammate Sergio Perez was sixth, which is a positive sign for McLaren as they search for a first podium of the season to help celebrate the team’s 50th anniversary this weekend.
Australian Mark Webber was eighth fastest in the second Red Bull, but only half a second off the pace, ahead of Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado of Williams and Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso.
Fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who will replace him at Red Bull next year, was down in 13th in his Toro Rosso, one place ahead of Massa.
A second practice session was scheduled for later on Friday, with qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday.