Formula One: Vettel leads Hamilton in practice

MONZA: Red Bull driver and defending champion Sebastian Vettel edged out Lewis Hamilton to set the pace in practice for the Italian Grand Prix. McLaren's Hamilton was held up in traffic late on and finished 0.036 seconds behind the championship leader. Michael Schumacher was a surprise third for Mercedes. With just a single high-speed corner at Parabolica and four high-speed straights, Monza's low-downforce circuit is not expected to play to Red Bull's strengths. But Red Bull appeared to have heavily updated their car for the unique challenges of this weekend and Vettel unleashed a lap of one minute 24.010 seconds to see off his rivals.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th, 2011.