Vettel fastest in practice 1 - Italy

Vettel, the youngest driver to take part in a Formula One meeting when he drove at the Turkish Grand Prix two weeks ago, finished the session 0.4 seconds clear of his nearest rival and teammate Poland's Robert Kubica.

Austrian Alexander Wurz, in a Williams, was third fastest ahead of Finn Kimi Raikkonen in a McLaren. Swiss Neel Jani was fifth for Scuderia Toro Rosso and Portuguese Tiago Monteiro was sixth for Midland.

On another hot day, the session began amid air temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius and with a track temperature of 34 degrees.

The stands were more than half full on the main straight where a large red banner was draped across the railings. It read "Schumy + Ferrari = Amore Eterno". The message was clear and the story of the weekend easy to understand.

The session was interrupted and stopped after only two minutes when Briton Anthony Davidson, driving a Honda, stopped his car at the Curve Grande. A red flag was waved immediately because of the danger to the rest of the field and the session stopped for ten minutes.

The session was restarted and saw few additional incidents as barely a dozen cars went out and recorded laptimes. Jani was one of the few who spun, losing his car briefly at the Variante Ascari, but he recovered and continued.

As the session ended, the sun rested behind unwelcome cloud cover and the humidity intensified on a day when high tension is expected later as both defending drivers' world champion Fernando Alonso and his rival German Michael Schumacher, who is seeking an eighth title, both took the morning off without clocking a time.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Vettel        BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:23.263           22
 2.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:23.745  + 0.482   5
 3.  Wurz          Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:23.868  + 0.605  19
 4.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:24.037  + 0.774   5
 5.  Jani          Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:24.196  + 0.933  24
 6.  Monteiro      MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:25.413  + 2.150   7
 7.  Doornbos      Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:25.578  + 2.315  19
 8.  Albers        MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:25.766  + 2.503   7
 9.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:26.708  + 3.445  20
10.  Yamamoto      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:27.310  + 4.047  20
11.  Montagny      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:27.597  + 4.334   7
12.  Mondini       MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:28.444  + 5.181   7
13.  Davidson      Honda               (M)  No time             2
14.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  No time             1
15.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  No time             1
16.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  No time             2
17.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber          (M)  No time             1
18.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  No time             2
19.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  No time             3
20.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  No time             1
21.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth   (B)  No time             1
22.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth   (B)  No time             1
23.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  No time             1
24.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  No time             1
25.  Alonso        Renault             (M)
26.  Fisichella    Renault             (M)
27.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             (B)
28.  Barrichello   Honda               (M)
29.  Button        Honda               (M)

All Timing Unofficial