MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS began the team's three day Young Driver Test at the Magny Cours circuit today. Development driver Sam Bird was at the wheel of the F1 W03 car.

The programme focused on acclimatising Sam to the car and evaluating the team's latest upgrades. These included a new exhaust package, along with further work on understanding the Pirelli tyres.

A productive day saw Sam complete a total of 95 laps and 419 km over the course of the day. He will continue the team's programme for the second day of the test tomorrow.

A three day Young Driver Test got underway today at Magny-Cours, to assess potential future Formula 1 drivers. Frenchman Jules Bianchi was at the wheel for Scuderia Ferrari.

The day's programme centred mainly on two points: collecting aerodynamic data, with the car fitted with specific sensors for this task and adapting the car set-up to best suit Jules' driving style.

Jules Bianchi, Luiz Razia and Rodolfo Gonzalez will test for Sahara Force India at the upcoming young driver test session in Magny-Cours, France. Jules is the team's third driver and has completed seven free practice sessions for the team already this season.

23-year-old Luiz Razia is currently second in the GP2 Series standings. The Brazilian will drive the VJM05 on Tuesday 11th September with Jules taking over for the second day of running on Wednesday. 26-year-old Gonzalez is also competing in the GP2 Series and will drive the VJM05 for the final day of testing on Thursday.

Lewis Hamilton sealed a fantastic victory at the Italian Grand Prix at the royal park in Monza this afternoon to cap a perfect weekend, having started on pole alongside teammate Jenson Button. The other McLaren had a less memorable day as Button retired from second with a fuel pump issue. Sergio Perez produced the drive of the day, perfectly executing an alternate one-stop strategy starting the race on hard tyres to outwit the majority of the field in a climb from 12th to second for a third career podium. Fernando Alonso had a feisty drive to extend his championship lead, finishing third ahead of teammate Felipe Massa. It was a disaster of a race for Red Bull Racing as both cars suffered retirement, a first non-scoring weekend for 23 races.

The McLarens began on the front row, followed by Massa and Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes in fourth. Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg were on row 3, while Alonso was starting tenth after a problem in qualifying. All the drivers except Lotus stand-in Jerome d’Ambrosio (15th), Nico Hulkenberg (24th), Perez and Pastor Maldonado (22nd) started the race on medium compound tyres.

The Red Bull team knew they had a battle on their hands this weekend as they suffered from a lack of top end pace, but even they would be absolutely gutted that they leave Monza with no points added to the board. Sebastian Vettel was in the running for a podium finish but a drive through penalty, followed up by an alternator failure wrecked the race for the German as he registered yet another DNF this season. Mark Webber was huffing and puffing his way through a topsy-turvy race but had a huge spin at the exit of the Ascari chicane as the Aussie was forced into retirement as well.

After a lackluster qualifying session, the Red Bull duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber got off to a quick getaway with reigning champion Vettel taking over 4th place from Michael Schumacher, whilst Mark Webber with a mountain to climb in the race, did not make the progress he would have wanted, as the "Gritty Aussie" was running in a lowly 10th place.

The Achilles team of the Mercedes team was exposed yet again as Michael Schumacher running as high as 4th place at one point in the Italian Grand Prix, finished the race in a battling 6th place. Nico Rosberg made sure of a decent points haul as he finished the race in 7th place, with the German duo having a late dash to the flag, as they gained numerous positions on fresher tyres.

The German marquee had a blistering start to the race as both Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg made good use of their superior Mercedes power in the run into turn 1. However, Schumacher lost ground as the German ace dropped to 6th place, with Vettel and Alonso through on the veteran German as tyre problems came back to haunt the Mercedes team.