Hamilton And Vettel Dominate Italian GP Practice

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Formula 1 returned from a two-week break with some on-track action ahead of this Sunday's Italian Grand Prix. Two 90 minute practice sessions enabled drivers to fine-tune their car's set-up ahead of qualifying and the race.

And it wasn't like the drivers were taking it easy either. Drivers pushed to their limits and beyond during first and second practice with the Monza gravel traps and run-off areas getting plenty of use.

Lewis Hamilton led the way in first practice after a trouble-free and smooth session. He set a best time of 1m25.565 en route to the fastest lap of the morning, set on the harder Pirelli compound tyre.

Image source: Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team

Fernando Alonso - who is the highest paid driver in motorsport - finished just 0.035 seconds behind his former team-mate with Rosberg, Vettel and Raikkonen rounding out the top five. Margins were close with Raikkonen finishing just three tenths behind Hamilton.

The McLaren duo of Sergio Perez and Jenson Button, hot off the back of his epic arrival at the Rush movie premier, set the sixth and seventh fastest times, but the latter suffered a delayed session after a malfunction with his DRS. The drag reduction system remained open through the medium-speed Ascari chicane and along the back straight, outside the two allocated zones.

Image source: Sahara Force India F1 Team

He avoided a penalty but lost time thanks to repairs. There were five British drivers taking part in the first practice session, the highest number on track since 2002. That was thanks to Force India running new third driver James Calado - who races in GP2 this season - instead of Adrian Sutil. He finished a respectable 17th in his first ever F1 weekend run, four tenths behind the sister car of Paul Di Resta.

There were plenty of off-track excursions with both Williams drivers taking to the gravel at the Ascari chicane in quick succession. Drivers seemingly struggled with understeer and there was plenty of tyre smoke as drivers locked up into the tight and twisty Monza chicanes - one of just five reasons why the track is so epic.

The temperatures rose by 10 degrees for the afternoon practice session with Sebastian Vettel looking ominous in first place. After focusing on long runs in the morning session, teams switched to the medium compound Pirelli tyres for some qualifying simulations in the afternoon.

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Vettel's fastest time of 1m24.453 was over six tenths faster than his nearest challenger, team-mate Mark Webber. The popular Aussie lost time early on with a KERS problem but still managed to complete 39 laps. Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean were next up but strangely set identical fastest lap times.

Alonso and Hamilton set the fifth and sixth fastest times with the latter almost replicating a scary moment for 'Iceman' Kimi Raikkonen late in the session after running wide at the Parabolica. He wasn't the only one; Vergne, Alonso and Bianchi - to name just a few - also suffered off-track excursions.

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Rosberg, Massa, Button and Perez completed the top 10 and were all within 1.1 seconds of Vettel. Man of the moment Daniel Ricciardo finished in 17th place but set his fastest time on the hard compound tyres. His future employers are certainly looking hard to beat after Friday's running.