The opening Friday practice for the 2012 Italian Grand Prix would again see Williams F1 replaced regular driver Bruno Senna with Valtteri Bottas. He would joining Pastor Maldonado as the Williams team set to work to prepare for Sunday's Grand Prix. Pirelli had brought their hard and medium compound tyres for this weekend. On a sunny day the start of the session would see Pastor complete one installation lap joined by Valtteri, with both drivers on the hard tyre. The first time of the day would be set by Hamilton with a 1m:31.028, but he would be passed by Massa with a 1m:28.370.

With thirty minutes of the session complete Hamilton would set a 1m:26.980 to again be fastest. Valtteri's first timed lap would be a 1m:31.734 to be sixteenth. The team would be working on aero evaluations in the morning session. As the session Valtteri would set a 1m:26.641 and Pastor a 1m:27.319. Both drivers would return late in the session for their final runs but for Pastor his run would see him stop out on the track at the Roggia chicane. Pastor would get out of the car walking away. It was later revealed that it was a hydraulic issue which the team would work on during the break between the sessions.

Pastor would finish the session in tenth, 1m:26.504, and Valtteri thirteenth, 1m:26.641. in a session that saw the team collect a good amount of data on which to assess the setup of the FW34.

Pos  Driver         	 Team		       Time      Laps
 1.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m25.422s 26
 2.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m25.723s 29
 3.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m25.762s 26
 4.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m25.800s 22
 5.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m25.861s 27
 6.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m25.944s 30
 7.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault         1m26.046s 25
 8.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m26.323s 26
 9.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m26.390s 24
10.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault      1m26.504s 19
11.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m26.508s 18
12.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes  1m26.518s 21
13.  Valtteri Bottas     Williams-Renault      1m26.641s 26
14.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m26.746s 23
15.  Jerome d'Ambrosio   Lotus-Renault         1m27.180s 29
16.  Jules Bianchi       Force India-Mercedes  1m27.192s 22
17.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m27.373s 25
18.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m27.789s 24
19.  Heikki Kovalainen   Caterham-Renault      1m27.855s 27
20.  Vitaly Petrov       Caterham-Renault      1m28.578s 20
21.  Charles Pic         Marussia-Cosworth     1m28.751s 26
22.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth     1m29.207s 21
23.  Pedro de la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth          1m29.331s 21
24.  Ma Qing Hua         HRT-Cosworth          1m31.239s 26