MONZA, Italy -- Nico Rosberg picked up where he left off in Belgium by topping the opening practice session of the Italian Grand Prix, edging teammate Lewis Hamilton to the fastest time by 0.2s.
Rosberg's 1:22.959, set on soft tyres, led the way in the opening session on Friday morning, and was over a second clear of the nearest Ferrari. Championship leader Hamilton was two tenths of a second behind in a scrappy session which saw him miss the Roggia chicane apex on three occasions.
Both Mercedes drivers displayed ominous pace, initially going fastest on super-soft tyres before improving on their next run with soft tyres on the car. Raikkonen finished 1.088s off Rosberg and some 0.3s up on Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel. Ferrari has spent its three remaining engine development tokens ahead of this weekend but it is unlikely the team significantly stretched the new power unit in the opening hour and a half of the weekend.
Sergio Perez finished fifth for Force India, continuing the encouraging form the team showed in Belgium. Haas driver Romain Grosjean also benefitted from a new Ferrari engine and was sixth, albeit with a time set on super-softs, ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen. Esteban Gutierrez finished in ninth on the super-softs ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, although the other Red Bull driver completed only 17 laps and set his fastest time on the softs.
Jenson Button finished 11th for McLaren ahead of Mexican driver Alfonso Celis, competing in one of his stand-in FP1 appearances in Nico Hulkenberg's place. Fernando Alonso finished 13th for McLaren using the soft-compound prototype tyre before a suspected engine issue brought an early end to his session. Felipe Massa also had a power unit problem during the session, but Williams was able to rectify it to send him back out to set the 14th fastest time.
Marucs Ericsson finished ahead of Toro Rosso pair Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat in 15th. Esteban Ocon finished in 18th, an impressive four tenths up on teammate Pascal Wehrlein, though FP1 is a rarely a good time to compare driver times. Felipe Nasr split the Manor drivers in 19th, while Renault pair Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen claimed the bottom two places in the Renaults.