Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes' gap over the rest of the field is "significant" at the Italian Grand Prix after finishing Friday practice 0.453s clear of his nearest non-Mercedes rival.
At the last race in Belgium, Hamilton's teammate Nico Rosberg took pole by just 0.149s from Max Verstappen, which was Mercedes' smallest margin to a rival since the Monaco Grand Prix in May, where Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo secured pole position. But during Friday practice at Monza, Red Bull's power deficit dropped Verstappen and Ricciardo to fifth and sixth, with Ferrari becoming the second best team albeit nearly half a second behind Hamilton.
"It's hot out there but the track feels really good with lots of grip and I found a good balance in the end, particularly going into my second stint," Hamilton said. "So I'm really happy with it and we got through our run plan and we are looking very strong this weekend.
"It's strange how one weekend you are stronger than another [weekend] as a team, but the car feels good this weekend.
"I have no idea what the gap will be tomorrow, but it looked significant today compared to some of the other races. It will be interesting to see what changes tomorrow."
Hamilton suffered a series of front lock ups during his long runs in practice and said getting braking right was one of the biggest challenges at Monza.
"Yeah, it's very hard to find braking points. Also you are trying to look after your tyres so you have to find a balance with how far forward you put your brake balance. If you put it further rear your tyres don't last so long because you under-rotate your rears, so you are right on the edge of the grip level of the front tyres throughout the whole braking, making sure you get it right. But a lock-up here is so costly and generally it's a one-stop always here, which isn't good.
"Generally I think they need to do better in the future with the tyre compounds because a one-stop race is so boring for everyone. When you have more stops it puts more confusion into the mix and more opportunity.
"The fact the super-soft can go quite a big distance here, last year I think it was 26 laps and this year I think it will be something similar -- but it is what it is and we are doing the best job we can with and trying to make sure we don't have a lock up, look after your tyres and don't lose time going through those extra barricades at the chicanes."