Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes AMG PETRONAS team continue their domination, with the British driver leading his team-mate by 0.463 seconds around Monza for first practice.
Hamilton will be hoping to use his momentum from the last race in Spa to put further water between him and Nico Rosberg who famously made an error while leading in the closing stages of the 2014 Italian Grand Prix.
Notably, Rosberg was quicker than Hamilton in the first sector; an area that requires good braking and acceleration out of the chicanes. Meanwhile, the World Champion found the most time in the quicker second sector through corners such as Lesmo and Ascari.
It is however the home race for the Ferrari in front of the Tifosi. Sebastian Vettel managed to take third, but with the Prancing Horse 1.5 seconds off Hamilton’s pace, it seemed that work would need to be done to close the gap to their rivals in front.
The other Ferrari driver; Kimi Raikkonen, would eventually finish sixth. He improved toward the end, but had also complained about brake issues at the same time. He would put in a time almost 0.6 seconds slower than his team mate.
It was another good session for Sahara Force India who managed to finish the session in fourth and fifth having split the Ferraris. It was Nico Hulkenberg who was ahead after an hour and a half around the Monza track, while Sergio Perez was a tenth down.
The session was stopped midway after Carlos Sainz Jr. spun at the exit of Parabolica. He slid off and soon beached himself in the gravel. It seemed likely that these issues would continue as Scuderia Torro Rosso set their drivers up with a low downforce, low drag set-up.
Daniel Ricciardo would finish seventh having beat the two Williams Martini Racing cars, while Pastor Maldonado came home tenth, with the Lotus F1 Team test driver; Jolyon Palmer, managing fifteenth.
