Valtteri Bottas was impressive in the Italy GP second practice as he topped the session ahead of Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

It was the other way round in P1, with Hamilton ahead of Bottas, but the Finn got the better of his British team-mate in P2, posting a fastest time of 1:21.406 on the supersoft tyres.

Mercedes dominated both sessions on Friday and they are looking ominously good for victory at Monza on Sunday, having left championship rivals Ferrari behind on day one of the Grand Prix weekend.

Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were third and fourth respectively for the Scuderia - 0.140secs and 0.398secs off the pace - whilst the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo followed.

However, the more remarkable performances came from the McLaren pair of Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso, who finished seventh and eighth respectively in one of their best displays of the season.

Ferrari will be slightly worried going into Saturday and Raikkonen admitted after P2 that an improvement was needed if the Silver Arrows were going to be overhauled.

"Just [need] a better balance overall. It wasn't an easy day so obviously some work to be done tomorrow," he was quoted as saying by Sky Sports.

"We will see tomorrow and Sunday. Times are times but we don't know what people are doing. But it didn't feel very easy for me today."