Lewis Hamilton sets Italian Grand Prix Friday F1 practice pace

The reigning world champion clocked a 1m22.801s on the super-soft tyres to finish 0.193 seconds clear of Rosberg.

Ferrari, running an updated engine, has emerged as Mercedes' closest challenger in Italy and Sebastian Vettel was 0.453s off the pace in third.

His team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was two tenths further back in fourth, ahead of the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.

Vettel and Raikkonen set the early pace, with Ferrari focusing on running the soft and medium, before Hamilton went fastest on the soft.

Vettel moved back to the top when he ran the super-softs, clocking a time 1.1s quicker than he managed in first practice on the same rubber.

Rosberg then bumped his German countryman down a place when he did his qualifying simulation before Hamilton went fastest a few moments later.

Hamilton abandoned a second lap on the super-soft, suggesting to his team that he didn't think his tyres would last the lap.

Attention then turned to long runs, with Hamilton and Rosberg lapping around three to four seconds off the pace on the super-softs.

The duo managed to do almost 20 laps on the rubber before pitting, with Hamilton taking the softs and Rosbergs the mediums to continue long-run data gathering.

Pirelli said long-run data suggested the super-soft looks set to have a longer life than at Spa, where it lasted just a handful of laps.

Fernando Alonso missed the opening part of the session while McLaren replaced a leaking connector.

But he got back out on track to set the seventh fastest time, 1.458s off the pace, with Valtteri Bottas a few thousandths adrift in eighth.

Romain Grosjean, running the updated Ferrari power unit, and Jenson Button completed the top 10.

Felipe Massa had a frustrating session, completing only half the number of laps his team-mate covered, on his way to the 11th quickest time but both Williams finished ahead of the Force India duo.

Toro Rosso, running the old-spec Ferrari unit, struggled with Carlos Sainz Jr and Daniil Kvyat 17th and 20th respectively.

Esteban Ocon managed just 13 laps after stopping out on track, with race control deploying the virtual safety car while the Manor was cleared.

PRACTICE TWO TIMES: