Morning everybody, and welcome to our LIVE coverage of the opening free practice session for the Italian Grand Prix.

That's the end of the session: thanks for joining us, and we'll be back at 1pm UK time with coverage of the second free practice session from Monza. See you then!

Kimi Raikkonon almost goes airbone! Yikes! The Lotus driver clatters into the Variante della Roggia kerbs at high speed, coming completely off the ground. It seemed an intentional test to see how the car would handle it. Still, though: ouch.

As the clock ticks down, news come through that Alonso heard an ominous noise coming from his engine on the start-finish straight and decided to pull off as soon as possible.

Pastor Maldonado's engine has conked out on the entry to Curve di Lesmo, and the last moments of this session look like being procession rather than blood and thunder - the car's in a very bad place almost on the edge of the racing line.

Michael Schumacher is out to try and improve on his fastest lap, but he's straight onto the radio: "My rear tyres are almost completely shot" he tells the Mercedes pit crew.

Was it a gearbox implosion that did for Alonso there? Seems it can't have been an engine blowing since there was no oil - possibly he was just told to stop by pit crew alarmed by a warning light.

Alonso has a major problem! He is about to start another lap, but his car has stopped completely in the first chicane. No smoke pouring out of it, but he's straight out of the car and walking back to the pits, while a lifter is straight in to recover the car.

More people making a mess of the first chicane, Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher both hammering their way through the kerbs. Massa in particular looks like he really might have thumped a few components loose the way he crashed over the bumps.

Alonso struggling for grip too, and he slows down to weave some more heat into his tyres. He won't set a decent time this go round, but will have another crack shortly.

Hamilton comes round for another lap, but again it's all looking frustrating as he locks up going into the opening chicane. Not far behind him is Fernando Alonso, back out and looking keen to set a time here.

It's a good half hour since we saw any changes at the top of the timesheets this morning...

Hamilton starts another flying lap, but it's undone on turn 3, Della Roggia, as he yet again his brakes fail to haul his speed down quickly enough.

Webber's lap tails off, the Red Bull driver unable to improve his position; Vettel, meanwhile, looks like he's gone out but is pootling around like a man driving a basket of eggs around.

Mark Webber, currently down in 9th, gets started on his latest lap, and the Aussie makes a good start with a textbook negotiation of the Rettifilo.

Sergio Perez blunders through Ascari now just as Jenson Button did earlier. Still not a huge amount of grip out there.

Hamilton is in the pits sitting staring at his screens - he's not taking pictures, though, as he recently did for charity.

Fernando Alonso has been unable to improve his time, and now come into the pits for a bit more fiddling. Getting the downforce balance right so tricky here, there's so much to be gained by reducing it to let the car steam up the long straights as fast as possible.

Button is out and looking on a neat lap, right up until the point that he locks his brakes and drives clean through the middle of the Variante della Roggia.

Nico Rosberg is on a flying lap, but he looks right on the edge, a bit of four-wheel drift through the Ascari making him look cool - and no wonder he comes straight into the pits.

Hamilton completes that lapwhere he locked up, but he's several seconds slower than he has been. Still Schumacher at the top of the timesheets.