Pastor Maldonado has taken the top spot in free practice today in Monza after a one hour delay as a result of a massive storm which flooded the paddock and the circuit, with Alberto Valerio and Mike Conway following in his wake on the still soaking circuit. The  Venezuelan  set  a  best  time  of  1:48.179  on  his last lap, just 0.015 ahead of Valerio as the track  started  to  dry  and  the  shortened  session  came  to  a  close,  but  with  almost  every  driver running  wide  or  missing  their  braking  point  for  the  chicane  the  times  were  more  reflective  of  a desire to stay off the walls ahead of this afternoon's qualifying session rather than their potential pace.

The  teams  were  stuck  in  the  paddock  for  half  an  hour  as  severe  flooding  causing mayhem for everyone,  and  when  they  finally  made  it  to  the  pitlane  there  was  a  similar  delay  while  track inspections were held to see if it was possible to run on track.

Bruno Senna was keen to get an idea  of  the  conditions,  leading  his  rivals  on  track  and  setting  the  early  pace  along  with  Alvaro Parente  and  Andy  Soucek,  while  championship  leader  Giorgio  Pantano  stayed  in  the  pitlane waiting for conditions to improve. Despite the problems for all of the drivers Karun Chandhok was the only man to stop on track, getting caught out on a large puddle at the Parabolica before getting stuck deep in the gravel: the Indian finished the session 25th and last as a result, while Diego Nunes appeared to damage his suspension after a wide ride at the Ascari complex before limping back to the paddock.

Behind  the  top  three  Lucas  di  Grassi  and  Romain  Grosjean  found  the  pace  to  just  edge  out Davide Valsecchi, Luca Filippi, Sébastien Buemi and Bruno Senna, while Pantano looked off form and finished the session in 23rd spot, although it is likely that he will improve his times when it counts, during qualifying in just two hours time.