McLaren on top - Vettel

Sebastian Vettel came out on top after a very competitve FP2 © Getty Images

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Sebastian Vettel says McLaren is the team to beat following Friday practice for the Italian Grand Prix.

Vettel beat Lewis Hamilton to the quickest time of FP2 by just 0.036s, but his lap of 1:24.066 was still slower than the time Hamilton had set in the morning session on medium tyres. Vettel said that it looked like McLaren had a performance advantage thanks to its rear wing, but that he was still pleased with the balance of the RB7.

"McLaren look very quick in particular and the ones to beat this weekend," Vettel said. "But it's very difficult to judge on a Friday as so many factors are involved."

Having admitted times were hard to read in to, Vettel said that the Red Bull appeared to be competitive on a track it has been traditionally weaker at, after his team-mate Mark Webber was also among seven cars to be separated by less than half a second by the end of the afternoon session.

"It was an interesting day. It's a track that traditionally doesn't suit us, but we were happy with the car today... We had no problems today, so we're satisfied."

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