Italian grand prix preview: Lewis Hamilton keen to kick on after Fernando Alonso at Monza

A maelstrom of speculation has been swirling around the 27-year-old during the last few days, with reports claiming he was about to join Mercedes.

But he put all the rumours aside to blow away the competition in practice with the fastest time on the Monza circuit today.

And though Hamilton claims his management team are in talks with McLaren, he revealed he wasn’t heeding the rumour mill at all.

“I’ve not really paid any attention to what the managers are talking about, what they have and haven’t offered,” he said.

“At some stage I’ll find out and I will decide.”

It has been suggested that the 27-year-old will replace Michael Schumacher at the German marque, assuming the German legend retires.

But for this weekend Hamilton is eager to claim his first win at Monza to close the 47-point gap to championship leader Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton added: “The title fight is tight. I just have to focus and do the job.”

At the bottom of the session one timesheet but making history as the first driver from China to compete in a F1 weekend was HRT’s Ma Qing Hua, who stood in for Narain Karthikeyan in practice one.