Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas split the honours leading one practice session each as the Silver Arrows dominated the top of the timesheets on Friday at the Italian Grand Prix.

The morning began under dark skies and a threat of rain which meant most of the drivers completed much of their running early in the 90-minute session. As a result, It didn't take long for Hamilton and Bottas to establish themselves at the top of the timings with the Briton setting a strong pace of 1:21.537s, over four-tenths clear of his teammate.

Ferrari opted not to push from the get go in front of their adoring Tifosi at Monza and would end the session over a second off the pace with Red Bull on their tails.

The Scuderia have little to fear from behind as the two RB13's are set to start from the back of the grid on Sunday as both Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen take new engine components and go over their allocation of four.

Therefore, there is a real opportunity for the midfield teams to potentially capitalise and in the morning it was the embattled Force India who, despite their internal driver feud, continue to be the 'best of the rest' with Sergio Perez ahead of Esteban Ocon as they finished seventh and eighth. 

Two teams with poor recent results are McLaren and Williams but both had cars in the top 10 throughout the day, with Stoffel Vandoorne ninth and Felipe Massa 10th in the first session. 

 A rain shower towards the end would dampen the track just enough with around 25 minutes to go that lap times didn't improve and meant it was a subdued start to the action at the 'Temple of Speed'.

The afternoon would bring clearer skies and sunshine, the more typical conditions expected in Italy in September, but with it no real change in the order from the morning.  

As the engines were turned up and a little fuel taken out for the qualifying simulations, it would be Ferrari who gained the most in terms of performance from the Soft tyre to the Supersoft rubber as Sebastian Vettel improved by almost a second with Kimi Raikkonen not too far back. 

That would bring them back into contention with Mercedes as they only improved by a tenth from Hamilton's best time in the morning and Bottas found around half a second to just beat his teammate by less than 0.05s with a 1:21.406s. 

Vettel would be within two-tenths in third and Raikkonen less than four-tenths behind in fourth as another tasty battle is again brewing between the top four cars. 

As for Red Bull, they focused on race pace in the afternoon but do remain the third best team despite the straights of Monza not usually suiting their underpowered Renault engine.

Both drivers would do just a single flying lap on the Supersoft tyre as Max Verstappen was fifth but a second slower than the leading pace with his teammate Daniel Ricciardo a further three-tenths off in sixth.

The final four positions in the top 10 were covered less than four-hundredths of a second but it was McLaren who would emerge as the surprise leaders in the midfield based on the times from the afternoon.

Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso would simulate the slipstreaming tactic they used at Spa during their low fuel run which would see the Belgian claim seventh with his teammate, who will also drop back due to engine penalties, right behind in eighth.

Ocon and Massa, like Vandoorne, would also maintain what would be Q3 and points-paying places on Sunday, in ninth and 10th for Force India and Williams respectively.

Carlos Sainz is also already set to join Alonso and the two Red Bulls at the back of the grid due to engine-related penalties but the Spaniard would suffer another failure with half an hour to go in the afternoon just to add insult to injury.

The Toro Rosso driver was 11th quickest overall with the two Renaults having work to do if they want to maintain their recent strong form with Nico Hulkenberg, who's day was cut short by a hydraulics issue, 12th and teammate Jolyon Palmer 13th.

Sergio Perez slipped back to 14th in the afternoon in the second Force India ahead of a struggling Lance Stroll, who's most memorable moment was a spin at Ascari before continuing in the Williams.

Romain Grosjean headed Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen in 16th and 17th, with the latter causing a Virtual Safety Car as the Dane came to a halt with suspension damage caused on the exit of the Lesmo bends.

Daniil Kvyat struggled with drive-ability problems in his Toro Rosso in 18th as Marcus Ericsson was four-tenths clear of Pascal Wehrlein as the two Sauber's continue to bring up the field.