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Defending champion, Jenson Button is trying to use the Italian Grand Prix to get back into reckoning after not being able to finish the Belgian race. He was the fastest on Friday’s free practice with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel scoring the second fastest time.

Button needs a strong win to keep his title defence alive and he showed that intent with a time of one minute 23.693 seconds on the Milanese circuit. Red Bull’s Vettel was a mere 0.097 slower.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton was third quickest for McLaren and Renault’s Robert Kubica came in fourth.

2008 champion, Hamilton leads Red Bull’s Mark Webber by three points in the standings with six races remaining. Vettel is third, a further 28 points adrift, with Button fourth and 35 points off Hamilton’s pace.

McLaren are favourites

McLaren are clear favourites to win in Ferrari’s backyard, with their car expected to be far more at home on the fastest circuit on the calendar than the Red Bull, which will be better suited to races to come in Asia.

Ferrari, with double world champion Fernando Alonso making his Italian race debut for the sport’s glamour team, filled eighth and ninth places with Brazilian Felipe Massa slightly slower than the Spaniard. Ferrari should be buoyed by the fact that the FIA announced no further penalties after Massa was told to slow down for Alonso to take the Bahrain race.

They were fined $75,000 and the FIA announced no further penalties in their hearing on Thursday. No one actually believes team orders can be eradicated. If a team want their drivers to finish in a particular order, there are plenty of ways of doing so without it ever becoming public.

There was a healthy turnout of fans for the first session and it is expected that it will be a full house today. Amongst the crowd on Friday, there was a banner declaring love for Formula 1 great, Michael Schumacher. That adulation did nothing to help the 41-year old German who was out of racing for three years. Schumacher, now with Mercedes had the 10th fastest time while team mate Nico Rosberg came in fifth. Rubens Barrichello, winner at Monza last season with Brawn GP and also with Ferrari in 2004 and 2002, had to park up his Williams half way through the session with mechanical problems.

Vettel said today’s race “will be tight”. He added that, “the gap between cars will be very small. It will be difficult but we are there and we will fight.”

Fight they must, as Lewis Hamilton will not be brushed aside easily in today’s race and the final five races.