Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time during Friday practice for the Italian Grand Prix as Red Bull showed early signs of defying expectations at Monza.
Ferrari pair Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa leapt up from the eighth and ninth places they respectively held in the morning to lie second and third, with the Spaniard just 0.076secs adrift.
There was a point during the afternoon when the McLaren duo of Hamilton and Button, who went quickest ahead of Vettel during the morning session, appeared head and shoulders above their rivals.
Although separated by just 0.056secs - the gap separating them at the end of the session - they were over seven-tenths of a second clear of their nearest challenger Alonso.
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But they were eventually beaten by Massa, then Alonso and finally Vettel in a matter of minutes and in the end had to settle for fourth and fifth quickest overall. SkySports
Australian Mark Webber, who is second in the title race, was sixth in the second Red Bull.
Rubens Barrichello was seventh for Williams ahead of Robert Kubica, in his Renault, German rookie Nico Hulkenberg in the second Williams and compatriot Nico Rosberg in the leading Mercedes.
Seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, once the darling of the tifosi who are expected to fill this grand old circuit on Sunday, was only 14th for Mercedes—a distance away from his glory days during his Ferrari pomp. AFP
Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi were evenly matched in their Force Indias, with 1m 24.181s and 1m 24.380s respectively, ahead of Vitaly Petrov on 1m 24.407s for Renault, Michael Schumacher on 1m 24.448s for Mercedes, Sebastien Buemi on 1m 25.517s for Toro Rosso, and Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi on 1m 24.547s and 1m 24.785s for BMW Sauber.
Jaime Alguersuari was 18th on 1m 25.106s in the second Toro Rosso, while Jarno Trulli moved Lotus ahead in the new team stakes with 1m 26.204s. Team mate Heikki Kovalainen was right behind with 1m 26.306s, as were Lucas di Grassi and Timo Glock in the Virgins, with 1m 26.631s and 1m 26.676s. Sakon Yamamoto was 23rd on 1m 29.498s, but HRT team mate Bruno Senna’s efforts to set a time were twice thwarted by technical gremlins. Formula 1
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