F1 Italian Grand Prix: Hamilton pacesetter at opening Monza practice

Mercedes AMG's Lewis Hamilton set the pace with a lap of 1:25.565 in the opening practice session of the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the last European round of the current F1 season.

The 2008 F1 champion clocked 24 laps to set a time 0.035 seconds faster than that of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, and 0.139 seconds faster than Mercedes AMG teammate Nico Rosberg.

Defending three-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel was fourth fastest for Red Bull Racing ahead of Lotus F1's Kimi Raikkonen, McLaren's Sergio Perez and Jenson Button, Vettel's teammate Mark Webber, Williams F1's Pastor Maldonado and Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne.

The session also saw the continued participation of Finland's Heikki Kovalainen who was dismissed from the race driver's seat at Caterham F1 after the 2012 season.

Kovalainen, a race winner with McLaren in 2008, has assumed the role of a third driver on Fridays and insists that he is not yet done with attempts to get back into the cockpit of an F1 car as a race driver.

However, the opening session saw the possibility of drivers outside of the top four squads in F1 at the momten being retained on merit take a hit.

This came through Sauber F1's CEO Monisha Kaltenborn admitting to reporters present at Monza that the exclusion of the reigning Formula Renault 3.5 World Series champion Robin Frijns was not down to a lack of talent on the part of the 22-year-old Dutchman.

Sauber F1 recently signed a deal with three Russian government backed companies and agreed to hire and train 18-year-old Sergei Sirotkin with the aim of getting him ready for a racing seat.