First practice: Lewis Hamilton fastest by nearly a second

Lewis Hamilton has clocked the fastest time of first practice in Monza, posting a time of 1:23.865 to finish nearly a second ahead of teammate Jenson Button.

The 2008 world champion was also over a second faster than Red Bull pair Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, who were third and fourth fastest respectively.

Hamilton currently sits 113 points behind championship leader and defending world champion Vettel but he has already said that he is "optimistic" about his chances at the Italian Grand Prix.

Top 10:

1. Lewis Hamilton - 1:23.865 2. Jenson Button - 1:24.786 3. Sebastian Vettel - 1:25.231 4. Mark Webber - 1:25.459 5. Adrian Sutil - 1:26.550 6. Vitaly Petrov - 1:26.625 7. Fernando Alonso - 1:26.647 8. Felipe Massa - 1:26.676 9. Sergio Perez - 1:26.694 10. Jaime Alguersuari - 1:26.696