JOIN USMcLaren's Lewis Hamilton shut out the swirl of paddock speculation about his Formula One future and focused on lapping fastest in practice for the Italian Grand Prix on Friday.
The 27-year-old led a team one-two at the top of the timesheets with a best lap of 1:25.290 in brilliant sunshine while Jenson Button, winner in Belgium last weekend, was 0.038 slower.
Hamilton has been the main talking point of the weekend with the rumour mill suggesting he could switch to Mercedes in place of Michael Schumacher.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, the championship leader, was third but the afternoon ended with worried faces after the Spaniard slowed on track and cruised back to the pitlane with an apparent gearbox problem.
He had also slowed and parked up in the morning session led by former Ferrari favourite Schumacher, still hailed by the partisan crowd as one of their all-time idols. Schumacher had lapped the fastest circuit in the morning, in 1:25.422.