Maldonado quickest in practice

The Venezuelan Piquet Sports driver lapped the Italian GP venue in 1:48.179, in a session that started wet after torrential rain flooded the track and paddock, and dried out as it progressed.

Alberto Valerio was a surprise second fastest for Durango, the Brazilian setting his time using the low-downforce single-plane wing unlike most who ran with the higher-downforce twin-plane.

Mike Conway was third fastest for Trident Racing, ahead of Lucas di Grassi (Campos). Romain Grosjean was fifth fastest for ART, ahead of Durango's Davide Valsecchi and Arden twins Luca Filippi and Sebastien Buemi.

Of the championship rivals, Bruno Senna tried both wing set-ups and ended the session ninth, while Giorgio Pantano was down in 23rd after he sat out much of the session.

He was keen to save his wet tyres, as the weather forecast for this weekend is mixed, and only put in a couple of flying laps. One of those was disallowed as he cut the Roggia chicane.

Karun Chandhok was the only driver to crash out and not be able to continue, as he spun off at the Parabolica. Just about everyone had at least one straightline moment at the chicanes, while Diego Nunes suffered an apparent wishbone problem with caused him to go off at Ascari.

Romain Grosjean made the best escape, from the Parabolica gravel early on.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Maldonado     Piquet Sports            1:48.179            12
 2.  Valerio       Durango                  1:48.194  + 0.015   12
 3.  Conway        Trident Racing           1:48.531  + 0.352   13
 4.  Di Grassi     Barwa Campos Team        1:49.048  + 0.869   11
 5.  Grosjean      ART Grand Prix           1:49.229  + 1.050   13
 6.  Valsecchi     Durango                  1:49.331  + 1.152   13
 7.  Filippi       Trust Team Arden         1:49.333  + 1.154   13
 8.  Buemi         Trust Team Arden         1:49.422  + 1.243   11
 9.  Senna         iSport International     1:49.524  + 1.345   12
10.  Soucek        Super Nova Racing        1:49.533  + 1.354   11
11.  Zuber         Piquet Sports            1:49.572  + 1.393   11
12.  Parente       Super Nova Racing        1:49.702  + 1.523   12
13.  Petrov        Barwa Campos Team        1:49.828  + 1.649    8
14.  Asmer         FMS International        1:49.914  + 1.735   13
15.  D'ambrosio    Dams                     1:50.150  + 1.971   13
16.  Herck         DPR                      1:50.182  + 2.003   13
17.  Yamamoto      ART Grand Prix           1:50.219  + 2.040   13
18.  Nunes         DPR                      1:50.335  + 2.156   12
19.  Rodriguez     FMS  International       1:50.841  + 2.662   13
20.  Kobayashi     Dams                     1:50.908  + 2.729   12
21.  Iaconelli     BCN Competicion          1:51.591  + 3.412   11
22.  Tung          Trident Racing           1:51.879  + 3.700   12
23.  Pantano       Racing Engineering       1:51.980  + 3.801   7
24.  Villa         Racing Engineering       1:52.411  + 4.232   12
25.  Chandhok      iSport International     1:54.301  + 6.122    4