Italian GP: Mercedes in a league apart in first practice

Hamilton's best of 1:24.670 put him nearly half a second ahead of Rosberg, but over 1.5 seconds in front of the closes non-Mercedes car.

A late improvement from Sebastian Vettel elevated him to third place in the Ferrari, before the German spun at the first chicane with seven minutes to go.

Nico Hulkenberg was fourth fastest ahead of teammate Sergio Perez, as Force India began the weekend in strong fashion. They were two seconds off Hamilton's pace, however.

Kimi Raikkonen finished in sixth in the second Ferrari, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull and the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.

Pastor Maldonado completed the top 10 in the Lotus.

McLaren had a short session as both Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso stopped in the pits early for a scheduled engine change. They both finished over three seconds off the pace.

It took nearly 13 minutes for a driver to appear on the timesheets, when Max Verstappen completed the first timed lap as Toro Rosso teammate Carlos Sainz was forced to return to the pits after complaining repeatedly of problems when changing gears.

Hamilton took first place 19 minutes into the session with the first lap in the 1:27s, over half a second clear of the opposition at the time.

Maldonado jumped to P1 briefly before Hamilton completed another flyer - a 1:26.305 - to regain the top stop, followed by teammate Rosberg, less than three tenths behind.

But the reigning world champion opened a gap of nearly a full second on his fifth lap, setting a new benchmark of 1:25.653.

After his early problems, things would go worse for Sainz after the Spaniard lost control of his car at Parabolica, ending up in the gravel and forcing the session to be red-flagged right before the half-hour mark.

The Toro Rosso driver ended the session with just eight laps and near the bottom of the times.

The action resumed after over 10 minutes of silence, but it took until the one-hour mark for a change at the top of the times, when Rosberg posted a quickest time of 1:25.423 to outpace Hamilton by nearly three tenths of a second.

Hamilton reacted right away and retook the top spot with a 1:25.152.

Rosberg improved seconds later, but fell just 0.011 seconds short of Hamilton's best.

Hamilton went even faster, however, becoming the first man to dip into the 1:24s with a 1:24.670, a time that would remain unbeaten.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1'24.670		25
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1'25.133	0.463	22
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1'26.258	1.588	17
4	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1'26.612	1.942	19
5	Sergio Perez	Force India	1'26.730	2.060	29
6	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1'26.783	2.113	16
7	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1'26.922	2.252	27
8	Felipe Massa	Williams	1'26.936	2.266	22
9	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1'27.075	2.405	25
10	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1'27.118	2.448	28
11	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1'27.232	2.562	21
12	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	1'27.275	2.605	29
13	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1'27.454	2.784	17
14	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1'27.591	2.921	27
15	Jolyon Palmer	Lotus	1'27.669	2.999	28
16	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1'27.907	3.237	8
17	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1'28.023	3.353	11
18	Jenson Button	McLaren	1'28.423	3.753	12
19	Will Stevens	Marussia	1'29.853	5.183	22
20	Roberto Merhi	Marussia	1'29.911	5.241	12