Vettel back on top in second practice for the Italian Grand Prix

Vettel, who had a low-key morning session after finishing over 1.3 seconds off Hamilton, could not match the time set by the Briton in the opening session, however, finishing with a 1m24.010s.

The Red Bull driver outpaced Hamilton by 0.036s, but the Briton looked set to go quicker than that before he was hit by traffic during his run of soft tyres.

Michael Schumacher had a promising afternoon with the third quickest time in the Mercedes.

Ferrari's drivers Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso had a stronger session than in the morning, finishing fourth and fifth respectively.

Mark Webber was sixth quickest in the second Red Bull.

The afternoon session saw a much busier start than the morning one, with several driver posting a time right away.

Sauber's Sergio Perez was the early pace-setter, before he was demoted to second before the ten-minute mark by Hamilton, who posted a 1m26.507s on his first run with the medium tyres.

The first incident of the session also took place before ten minutes had passed, when Sebastien Buemi went wide at Parabolica, the Toro Rosso driver crashing against the barriers. Although he was unhurt, the Swiss driver's car was heavily damaged and could not return to action.

After that, Button shot to the top of the times with a lap in the 1m25s, with Webber moving to second less than two tenths behind the Briton.

Webber improved on the following lap to outpace Button, but it was team-mate Vettel who took the top spot after 15 minutes when he stopped the clock at 1m25.635s, improving by over a second on the following laps as he completed a longer run.

It took until the 45-minute mark for Vettel to be demoted from first place, when Schumacher completed a run with the soft tyres to set a 1m24.816s, improving to a 1m24.347s on the following lap.

Schumacher's time was closely matched by Massa, the Brazilian completing his first run on softs to finish just 0.019s behind the Mercedes driver.

As more drivers began to use the softer Pirelli compound, the times continued to tumble, with Hamilton going quickest with 30 minutes left.

Vettel's first lap on the soft tyre was hindered by traffic, but the German still managed to move up to second behind the McLaren driver, who looked set to go even quicker on his second lap but nearly made contact at Parabolica with a very slow Jamie Alguersuari.

Vettel did manage to go quicker on his second lap of the run and jumped to the top with a 1m24.010s.

Daniel Ricciardo endured a difficult session after spending most of the 90 minutes in the garage as his HRT mechanics worked on the car. He managed just seven laps.


Pos  Driver                Team                  Time              Laps
 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m24.010s           37
 2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m24.046s  + 0.036  21
 3.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m24.347s  + 0.337  39
 4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m24.366s  + 0.356  33
 5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m24.433s  + 0.423  31
 6.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m24.468s  + 0.458  32
 7.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m24.508s  + 0.498  30
 8.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari        1m25.097s  + 1.087  39
 9.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari        1m25.182s  + 1.172  37
10.  Bruno Senna           Renault               1m25.325s  + 1.315  38
11.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault               1m25.450s  + 1.440  31
12.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1m25.496s  + 1.486  39
13.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m25.683s  + 1.673  37
14.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m25.758s  + 1.748  29
15.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth     1m26.202s  + 2.192  36
16.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth     1m26.353s  + 2.343  40
17.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m28.347s  + 4.337   5
18.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault         1m28.559s  + 4.549  32
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault         1m28.605s  + 4.595  32
20.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth       1m28.804s  + 4.794  25
21.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth          1m29.162s  + 5.152  34
22.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m29.184s  + 5.174  29
23.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth       1m29.622s  + 5.612  34
24.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth          1m29.841s  + 5.831   7