Oscar Piastri pips McLaren team-mate Lando Norris to practice double at Imola
Australian Piastri has won the last three races – and four of the first six – to hold a 16-point championship lead heading into this weekend.
McLaren were dominant in claiming a one-two in Miami a fortnight ago, where Mercedes' George Russell in third was over 33 seconds adrift of runner-up Norris.
Friday's running at Imola, ahead of the first European race of the season, hinted that the papaya duo would again be the ones to beat.
Piastri was just 0.032 seconds ahead of his team-mate in first practice before coming out on top by an even narrower margin of 0.025sec in the second session.
The 24-year-old's impressive start to the season has seen him become the first Australian to lead the standings since his manager Mark Webber in 2010 and catapulted him into being favourite to claim his first drivers' championship.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella earlier praised the way Piastri has developed since last season and also credited the team around him, including Webber.
'Over the winter, there's been a very specific amount of work that has gone in,' Stella said.
'It's been quite holistic. While Oscar is definitely the main one to praise for these developments, I would like to mention the team around Oscar – his engineers and all the support from the factory with all the analysis – and even the team, Mark Webber, that works with Oscar.
'He's definitely a great source of thoughts, insight and identification of opportunities.
'So, there's quite a lot of work behind this progress. But ultimately, hats off to Oscar who has been able to capitalise.'
Pierre Gasly finished the day an impressive third for Alpine ahead of Russell, with Max Verstappen fifth and over four tenths off the pace.
Early encouragement for Lewis Hamilton, at his first home race for Ferrari, faded as the day went on.
The seven-time world champion was fifth and less than a tenth off the pace in FP1 but both he and team-mate Charles Leclerc raised brake issues in the second running as Hamilton could manage only 11th.
Leclerc, who missed Thursday's media day through illness, finished the day sixth fastest.
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