Massa leads Monza test

Ferrari's Felipe Massa, winner of the European Grand Prix at the weekend, picked up where he left off with the fastest time on the first day of Formula One testing at Monza on Wednesday.

The Brazilian, six points behind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in the championship with six races remaining, lapped Ferrari's home circuit in one minute 23.428 seconds according to unofficial times.

McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen was second on the timesheets in 1:23.439.

The Monza session, ahead of next month's Italian Grand Prix, marked the resumption of testing after the August break with all 10 teams present.

Ferrari said Massa had worked on developing the aerodynamic package to be used at the Italian race, carrying out three long runs and a total of 101 laps.

The next race is the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps on Sept. 7