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Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time in Friday's free practice finishing second and first in the two free practice sessions respectively.  Vettel was consistently fastest in a day when the McLarens looked really quick for the most part of the practice sessions. Jenson Button had earlier gone quickest in the morning practice session followed by Vettel and team mate Hamilton. Championship leader Lewis Hamilton finished 3^rd and 4^th in the two sessions while home team Ferrari  looked quick in FP-2 with Alonso and Massa finishing 2^nd and 3^rd. Every team in the paddock barring the rookies experimented with their F-duct with Torro Rosso being the latest team to add the innovation to their car.

FP-1

Free Practice 1 got underway in bright sunshine in contrast to the previous race weekend at Spa. Michael Schumacher got the ball rolling early and put in 3 laps setting a time of 1m 28 150 before heading back into the pits.  Red Bull used flow visualization paint on their car in the morning session to analyse the air flow over their car as an uneventful 20 minutes passed in the first session with Schumacher having set the only time on the board. Schumacher came out of the pits again to better his time by a further couple of seconds.

Lewis Hamilton drove out with a high downforce set up on hard tyres and immediately bested Schumacher's time. Hamilton stayed out for a few more laps and broke the 1:25 s barrier. Vettel came out for his first lap a good 40 minutes into the session and immediately moved into second place behind Hamilton. A few minutes later Vettel went one better to beat Hamilton's time.

Jenson Button upped the ante in his McLaren to take the lead and was on top of the charts from then on, consistently chipping away at his time to finish the session with a best time of 1:23.693 followed by Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton. The Two Ferraris finished eighth and ninth while championship contender Mark Webber slotted in sixth.

FP-2

Robert Kubica and Michael Schumacher got proceedings going in the afternoon session and were comfortably inside the 1m 25s mark. Alonso's Ferrari came out on hard tyres and looked quick in second place behind the even quicker Jenson Button. McLaren, who were experimenting with a high downforce set up coupled with the F duct vs a low downforce set up, seemed to have the measure of every other team at this point.

Lewis Hamilton headed onto track with his F-duct less low-downforce setup and went second fastest behind his team mate. The two McLarens with different downforce setups traded the lead for a brief time leaving McLaren wondering about which setup to take to the race weekend.

Sebastian Vettel, who looked a bit slower than the third placed Ferrari of Alonso for the first hour, switched to softer tyres and bettered his timing but stayed in fourth owing to better runs from the Ferraris who by now had the lead with Alonso's 1m22.915 being the new benchmark. Vettel running on soft tyres and with an extremely thin rear wing however stole the lead from Alonso with a 1m22.839 and kept the lead for the rest of the session answering a lot of answers about Red Bull's pace at Monza in the process.

Robert Kubica in the Renault looked consistent as ever finishing fourth and eighth in the two sessions while his Mercedes rival Nico Rosberg finished fifth and tenth in the two sessions. Michael Schumacher failed to crack the top 10 in both sessions. The two Mercedes' looked to be struggling with the excessive drag from their aero package despite having a good engine.  Force India looked mediocre and would have to up their pace from eleventh and twelfth on the time sheets if they are to make an impact this year at Italy.

Hamilton and Button looked good for most of the session and didn't put in a lot of laps towards to end and eventually ended the session in fourth and fifth. They still look like the duo to beat this weekend and it will be interesting to see if McLaren omit the F-duct from their plans for the race. Ferrari, who traditionally dominate at Monza, looked fast and are most likely to give McLaren a challenge. Red Bull while having set the fastest time with Vettel would be worried about Mark Webber who finished sixth in both sessions. He retired with technical issues in FP-2. One of the closest qualifying battles is potentially in the offing if the top three teams can get their act together tomorrow.