Heavy rain washed out first practice at the Italian Grand Prix on Friday with Force India’s Adrian Sutil leading the timesheets before the deluge.
With the drains struggling to cope with the downpour, mechanics wielded brushes to sweep water out of the garages while a scattering of fans huddled under umbrellas in the main grandstand.
The fastest times of the 90-minute session were recorded early in the session in damp conditions with Adrian Sutil topping the timesheets in his Force India Ferrari with a best lap of 1:32.842s, ten seconds off a quick dry time around the 5.793km circuit. Rubens Barrichello posted the second fastest time in his Honda ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella in the second VJM01.
Once the storms began, with much thunder and lightning over Monza, the track had no chance to dry before continuing downpours rendered any idea of clocking meaningful times useless. At the same time, the garages began to fill with water as the pit lane drains failed to cope.
The session was finally red-flagged to a premature halt with four minutes remaining due to the severity of the rain. By then, no cars had ventured out for more than 15 minutes.
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