Fisichella fastest on day 1 of Monza test

Ten drivers from five teams have begun their testing programme at the Italian track, with virtually all drivers concentrating on tyre testing for the United States Grand Prix next month.

Fisichella's fastest lap of the day, 1:23.641, was just a fraction of a second faster than BMW's Nick Heidfeld and Renault tester Heikki Kovalainen.

BMW's Robert Kubica ended his work day prematurely, suffering an engine failure in the afternoon, which brought out a red flag.

Other red flag incidents through the day included an engine failure for Honda's test driver Anthony Davidson in the morning; a mechanical failure for for Toyota's Ricardo Zonta in the afternoon, followed immediately by a mechanical failure for Williams's Alex Wurz.

The Austrian ran the least amount of laps - 32 - concentrating on gearbox and aero development in the morning, moving on to suspension work in the afternoon.

Tyre testing suggests both Bridgestone and Michelin are looking to bring compounds from their soft range to the North American races, with the Canadian option much softer than the Indianapolis option.

Toyota's Olivier Panis also shook down the latest TF106B car, while Zonta used one of the existing B cars that arrived at Monza directly from Silverstone.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver      Team                     Time      Laps
 1.  Fisichella  Renault             (M)  1:23.641   98
 2.  Heidfeld    BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:23.656  106
 3.  Kovalainen  Renault             (M)  1:23.727  110
 4.  Rosberg     Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:23.816   70
 5.  Rossiter    Honda               (M)  1:24.313  117
 6.  Kubica      BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:24.563   78
 7.  Zonta       Toyota              (B)  1:24.669   75
 8.  Davidson    Honda               (M)  1:24.755  125
 9.  Panis       Toyota              (B)  1:25.424   78
10.  Wurz        Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:27.017   32