Hamilton tops free practice at Imola

The ART Grand Prix driver ended the pre-qualifying session three tenths clear of the field after an incident-filled session.

Ernesto Viso claimed second for iSport late on, denying Nelson Piquet Junior the place. The championship leader had been the early pace-setter in the session.

His teammate Xandi Negrao was less fortunate and a stuck throttle caused him to go off on his first flying lap. The front wing and nose of the Piquet Sports car was damaged in the impact with the barrier.

Lucas di Grassi spun his Durango car, Franck Perera's DAMS machine stopped on track, as did Michael Ammermuller's Arden.

Trident's Gimmi Bruni spun at the final corner, but continued and set the fourth quickest time.

Jose Marie Lopez was fifth for Super Nova, Clivio Piccone in the DPR sixth - despite going off late on - Ammermuller seventh, while Hamilton's ART teammate Alex Premat took eighth.

Adam Carroll was 16th for Racing Engineering, but reckoned the car felt good. Like all the drivers he felt the track was much bumpier than last year, especially in the first corner, while the new surfacing at the Variante Alta is proving much more slippery than the older asphalt before and after it.

Pos  Driver       Team                       Time     Laps
 1.  Hamilton     ART Grand Prix             1:33.691  10
 2.  Viso         iSport International       1:34.032  16
 3.  Piquet Jr    Piquet Sports              1:34.088  14
 4.  Bruni        Trident Racing             1:34.143  13
 5.  Lopez        Super Nova International   1:34.274  14
 6.  Piccione     DPR                        1:34.337  15
 7.  Ammermueller Arden International Ltd    1:34.356  12
 8.  Premat       ART Grand Prix             1:34.516  14
 9.  Lapierre     Arden International Ltd    1:34.765  13
10.  Perera       DAMS                       1:35.158  10
11.  Zuber        Trident Racing             1:35.166  15
12.  Yoshimoto    BCN Competicion            1:35.236  16
13.  Gommendy     iSport International       1:35.299  16
14.  Valles       Campos Racing              1:35.372  12
15.  Filippi      FMS International          1:35.470  16
16.  Carroll      Racing Engineering         1:35.692  15
17.  Monfardini   DAMS                       1:35.921  14
18.  Porteiro     Campos Racing              1:36.178  16
19.  Glock        BCN Competicion            1:36.222  14
20.  Pla          DPR                        1:36.224   9
21.  Fauzy        Super Nova International   1:36.673  15
22.  Di Grassi    Durango                    1:37.178   7
23.  Hernandez    Durango                    1:37.199  14
24.  Tahinci      FMS International          1:38.001  14
25.  Villa        Racing Engineering         1:39.078  13
26.  Negrao       Piquet Sports              no time    2