Button tops Practice 1posted in F110 | 09 | 2010

DEFENDING WORLD champ Jenson Button topped the timesheets after first practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. But Sunday's race looks like being as close as ever as the McLaren driver's fastest time of 1min 23.693secs was just 0.097s quicker than the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel.

Button's McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton was the only other driver in the 1m23s in third, 0.274s behind his fellow Brit. Robert Kubica maintained his good form for Renault by posting the fourth-fastest time ahead of Nico Rosberg's Mercedes and Red Bull's Mark Webber. Ferrari duo Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were eighth and ninth respectively.

Bathgate's Paul di Resta, standing in for Adrian Sutil, was at one stage fifth-fastest in his Force India car but dropped to 12th as the established drivers capitalised on new rubber and better track condition at the end of the session.