Lewis Hamilton set the quickest time in the opening practice session at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza ahead of Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg. Button had led for much of the session before a late lap from the 2008 world champion saw him top the time-sheets.
There were several driver changes in the opening practice session in Monza. Charles Pic replaced Romain Grosjean, Roberto Merhi made his Formula One début as he replaced Kobayashi whilst van der Garde replaced Sutil for FP1. Daniel Juncadella replaced Sergio Perez for the opening thirty minutes of the session.
At Ferrari’s home race, Fernando Alonso set the fourth quickest time of the session albeit one second slower than Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel was the highest Renault power-unit runner in sixth with fellow Red Bull driver Ricciardo down in fifteenth. Both Red Bull drivers had suffered DRS problems however were later fixed.
Despite missing the first thirty minutes, Sergio Perez was ahead of his team-mate and set the eighth quickest time whilst Esteban Gutiérrez showed Sauber had improved pace this weekend in eleventh. Williams focused on set-up work as Bottas and Massa were twelfth and thirteenth respectively. Both drivers struggled with the balance of their cars, running wide at the Parabolica on several occasions.
On his Formula One debut, Roberto Merhi was two tenths clear of full-time Caterham driver Marcus Ericsson. All drivers set their quickest times on the orange marked hard tyres.
