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Italian GP. FP1 Report. The KERS-fitted McLaren-Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen ended the opening practice session at Monza clear of the rest of the field, while meanwhile the new boy at Ferrari acquitted himself rather well indeed.

The action during the first 90 minute session was predictably thin on the ground, as the teams once again decided to start their weekends on the lazy side, although the pair of Toro Rossos did decide to set some timed laps within the first quarter of an hour or so, which was rather nice of them.

Hamilton and Kovalainen had things their own way for most of the session, as the KERS-equipped McLarens hit the ground running down the long straights of Monza, although the reigning champion had a few dodgy moments, untidily messing up a few of his flying runs and seeing the fuel flap fall off his car on an early run. Nevertheless, he ended the session nearly four tenths of a second ahead of his team mate and over half a second clear of the rest of the field.

Adrian Sutil, fresh from his promotion to team leader at Force India, responded by setting the third fastest time, as the former backmarkers continued their renaissance from Spa two weeks ago. Sutil spent most of the session in the top ten, indicating that his pace was far more than just a late, short-fuelled run to gain a bit of attention.

Fernando Alonso used the re-fitted KERS device on his Renault to streak to fourth fastest, giving Renault something to be happy about despite the continued controversy surrounding the team over Fixgate. Nick Heidfeld also continued BMW's recent turnaround in form with the fifth fastest time. Sebastien Buemi was 6th for Toro Rosso.

The best of the title contenders was Jenson Button's Brawn, which ended the session in 7th place, just ahead of Ferrari new boy Giancarlo Fisichella, who managed to outpace his illustrious team mate Kimi Raikkonen in his first-ever session with the team. That result should, though, be taken with a pinch of salt, as the Italian had been struggling to get on the pace for most of the session before going for a low-fuel run on the softer compound tyre right at the end of the session.

Mark Webber was the best of the Red Bulls in 9th, after his team mate Sebastian Vettel was once again forced to miss the majority of the session in order to conserve his dwindling engine allocation. Meanwhile, Rubens Barrichello could only manage 12th in the second of the Brawn GP cars.

Williams had a difficult session, with Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima ending the 90 minutes in 13th and 14th places respectively, though their morning was not quite as bad as the works Toyota team, whose baffling yo-yoing form continued as they ended the session right at the foot of the timesheets.

The new face in the paddock this week, the returning Tonio Liuzzi at Force India, finished his first practice session since 2007 in a respectable 16th place, albeit over a second off the pace of his team mate Sutil.