Drive2HungaryF1: I was in Hungary in 2009 when Massa had his accident. Very scary day, glad that he came back and had a decent 7 years in F1.

Nick Holland: Are there still gentlemen characters like Massa coming thru to F1 or do they head to other Series away from the money men? 

William Savage: Loved Massa interrupting Hamiltons interview after they crashed in Singapore. Lewis didn't know what to say or do after #awkwardmuch

Mark Rogers: Best memory of Massa was the few seconds he was World Champion, worst memory was when Hamilton took it away again.

Felipe Massa's turbo booster issue is sorted and he's on track for the first time since announcing his retirement.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Doggett has sent these photos of the old banking at Monza.

The image above is the banking in action, while below is how it currently looks.

Whichever way you look at it, it's absurdly terrifying - they wouldn't make roller coasters that ridiculous.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Monza

Image source, Getty Images

For the last two years, there has been doubt about the future of the Italian Grand Prix, as the organisers and F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone argued - sometimes in public - over a new contract to replace the one that runs out this year.

Ecclestone has suggested several times that the race could be off the calendar if he did not get the money he wanted. But finally it seems a deal has been done. The Italian organisers say a new deal will be signed this weekend and, assuming nothing goes wrong, everyone in the sport will be relieved about that.

There's a lull as we hit the midway point and the cars trundle into the pits.

Lewis Hamilton still leads, 0.008secs ahead of Nico Rosberg.

You can't even think "0.00secs" in 0.008secs - that's how quick it is.

Sebastian Vettel leads the rest, but he's 0.6secs off and then it's Sergio Perez, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen.

And here come the cars again.

andrew doggett: Seeing @MassaFelipe19 sitting on the wall outside his son's school in Monaco this year. Nodded and smiled . Everyday dad

Daniel Ricciardo has had a couple of wobbles already third morning, shimmying off the track twice now by my count.

He may still be too excited from a charity game of football this week - the Honey Badger maybe had a bit too much honey.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Speaking of Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel has lept up to third, 0.6secs off the front pair of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Kimi Raikkonen is in P6, with Sergio Perez between the Ferrari team-mates.

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Monza

Image source, Getty Images

As always, there is a lot of pressure on Ferrari at their home race. The team’s season is falling apart and a Ferrari has not been on the podium since Kimi Raikkonen finished third in Austria way back at the beginning of July.

But Sebastian Vettel - whose own previous podium finish came in the race before that in Baku - has turned that into a positive this weekend. “I think it comes at the right time,” said the German.

“We need a bit of a boost and support, so very much looking forward to the weekend. Last weekend was very positive for us. Obviously the race didn’t unfold as we expected or hoped but it was very positive in terms of pace. We had a couple of races before the summer break where we were struggling a bit and we seemed to reconnect the group again so I’m pretty confident the car should be fine here.”

The first task for them is to try to finish ahead of the Red Bulls and reignite their fight for second in the championship.    

We're asking for your Felipe Massa memories - and in decades' time they will be recalling that occasion he stood around in the garage while his Williams team worked on his car's turbo charger.

That's exactly what is happening right now and he'll be pushed to get out in the 55 minutes of the session.

Nico Rosberg sets a personal best time, and immediately afterwards, Lewis Hamilton follows suit - wow, just 0.008secs between the two of them.

Image source, Getty Images

Mark Gallagher
BBC Radio 5 live Formula 1 analyst

I was a little surprised by Massa's retirement. He's only 35 - he's not 38 or 39. If you could imagine Lewis Hamilton retiring in three or four years I'm sure that would be a surprise.

He has clearly had to come to his decision and it will be interesting to find out the background to it. I rather suspect he realised there wasn't a future opportunity for him and it forced his hand.

Arif D: If not for politics at Ferrari...@MassaFelipe19 could have been multiple world champion

Amit Mandalia: favourite @MassaFelipe19 memory is obviously the image of him punching his chest on the podium for the crowd after Brazil 2008 

Stephen Williams: Malaysia 2009. Rob Smedley: "Felipe baby stay cool" 

Hamilton and Rosberg remain pinned at the top of the leaderboard.

The Force India of Sergio Perez is third quickest with a 1:25.6 - and we now have 13 drivers with times on the board.

Mark Gallagher
BBC Radio 5 live Formula 1 analyst

For all the criticism Max has received - actually at heart we don't want Max to change his approach. We want him to be aggressive an racing.

Paul Dotter: Has Max got the HALO for his own protection??

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Monza

Image source, getty

Max Verstappen’s driving antics at Spa remained a major talking point in the paddock as the teams and drivers convened again here in Italy. Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel discussed their views with FIA F1 director Charlie Whiting on Thursday and it is going to be brought up in the drivers’ briefing after practice on Friday. In amongst the furore, it was interesting to hear Fernando Alonso’s view, as an elder statesman and as someone Whiting takes very seriously because of his standing in the sport and reputation for being a hard but fair racer.

"We cannot confuse the fans about completely different incidents,” Alonso said. “In the middle of the straight like Verstappen and Kimi or on braking area like it happened to me in Australia - so I misjudged probably the braking area so the accident can be bigger - or Max/Kimi also in Hungary. On that occasion I felt Max was moving under braking a lot in Turn Two and Max was way too aggressive. In fact, we spoke about that in Germany in the drivers’ briefing. I think all the drivers were not happy with Max in Hungary because it was under braking for Turn Two and you cannot move on the braking zone. But on the middle of the straight you are allowed to do one move as long as the other car is not alongside you, so everything fits in the incident in Spa.

"There is a rule that you cannot move in the braking zones or when a car is alongside you. I don’t think Kimi was side by side and Max moved and put Kimi on the grass. It was very late but maybe he didn’t judge where Kimi was. But Kimi was still behind, so the rule as written is still applicable.

Lewis Hamilton goes even quicker with a 1:24.1, which is less than a second off his pole position time last year.

Nico Rosberg is 0.8secs down.

Force India's Mexican reserve driver Alfonso Celis is having a run out this morning in lieu of Nico Hulkenberg and is currently fifth quickest of nine.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, rex features

As Jenson Button heads back into the garage with the halo device set to be removed, here's a look back at an earlier attempt at head safety in F1 cars.

More reminiscent oft he aeroscreen, in 1967 Jack Brabham tried out this screen at Monza - it didn't catch on.