F1 Italian GP: Friday roundup

Mercedes showed blistering pace in the first two practice sessions for the F1 Italian Grand Prix, with drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg lapping comfortably faster than the chasing pack.

In first practice, Hamilton lapped the legendary Monza Autodrome in 1:24.670, beating the fastest non-Mercedes car of Sebastian Vettel by over one-and-a-half seconds. This gap reduced to less than eight tenths off a second in the afternoon session.

This significant performance bump of an already quick Mercedes package can be directly attributed to the use of engine tokens in the run up to the fastest track on the calendar.

Mercedes customers teams are yet to receive the upgraded power unit. However, Force India looked quick and set the fourth and the fifth fastest time in both sessions. This comes following Nico Hulkenberg showing faith in the team and choosing to race with them for another two years. His teammate, Sergio Perez, too, expects his contract with the Silverstone based F1 team to be renewed soon.

Meanwhile, Lotus and Williams made it eight Mercedes-powered cars in the top 10, with the Enstone based squad leading their Grove rivals. The talks of a Lotus buyout by Renault have intensified further over the last few weeks, with the deal set to be rubber stamped after a board meeting this month.

Both Sauber drivers were quicker than Red Bull in FP2, having received the new Ferrari power unit a fortnight ago at Spa. It would be interesting to see whether the works outfit - third and sixth quickest with Vettel and Raikkonen respectively - can lock the final spot on the podium on this power hungry track.

And finally, McLaren-Honda are set to endure another difficult F1 weekend, made tougher still with engine penalties on both cars.