Russell leads Leclerc in Friday practice at Monza

Mercedes' George Russell topped Friday practice at the Italian Grand Prix from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

Russell was 0.120 seconds quicker than Leclerc, with Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who will start the race from the back with a grid penalty, just 0.021secs behind the Ferrari.

McLaren's Lando Norris was fourth fastest from the second Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton and McLaren's Oscar Piastri.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen, still yet to win a race this year, was 0.818secs off the pace with ninth-fastest time, behind the Racing Bulls of Arvid Lindblad and Oliver Bearman's Haas.

Ferrari have introduced an upgraded engine for this race but its performance will not be clear until qualifying and the race.

But the Italian team have lagged behind Mercedes on engine performance all season - Hamilton says they have regularly been losing 0.4secs on the straights - so to be as close as they were on a track which is so power-sensitive because of the amount of time spent at full throttle was encouraging on the face of it.

Antonelli's penalty is caused by using too many engine components this season after reliability problems earlier in the year. Russell will take one at a subsequent race, most likely the Azerbaijan Grand Prix later this month.

Mercedes have chosen this race because they hope the long straights will give him a decent chance of recovering a strong result.