Lewis Hamilton heads into the Italian Grand Prix weekend in peak form, having topped the timesheets in each of Friday's practice sessions, but a dark cloud was left hanging over the Red Bull garage after FP2.

Driving the most powerful car around a circuit built for speed, Hamilton and Mercedes stable-mate Nico Rosberg should by rights dominate the weekend at Monza, and their qualifying simulations bore that out.

Hamilton clocked one minute 24.279 seconds - less than a tenth quicker than Rosberg - who in turn was seven tenths quicker than third-placed Sebastian Vettel.

One ray of light for fans hoping for some action up front could be Vettel's long runs, which saw him regularly post laps quicker than Hamilton managed on the same, prime tyres.

Red Bull will not be challenging, however. Before the second session, race control confirmed grid penalties for Daniil Kvyat (15 places) and Daniel Ricciardo (25 places).

To make matters worse, both drivers suffered gearbox issues and were unable to run for the full session.

Another team perhaps looking to the weekend with dread are McLaren. Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button have also been hit by grid drops over their use of new engines, and the Brit's car had to be dismantled during FP2 due to a water leak.

1.    Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1:24.279
2.    Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1:24.300
3.    Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) 1:25.038
4.    Sergio Perez (Force India) 1:25.278
5.    Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) 1:25.325
6.    Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 1:25.380
7.    Sebastien Grosjean (Lotus) 1:25.497
8.    Pastor Maldonado (Lotus) 1:25.513
9.    Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 1:25.647
10.  Felipe Massa (Williams) 1:25.891