(CNN) -- Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel urged caution ahead of this weekend's Italian Grand Prix, despite a dominating performance which underlined his position at the top of the world championship standings.
Formula One's triple defending champion went fastest in practice ahead of Sunday's race at the Monza circuit with a lap of one minute and 24.453 seconds, over a half a second clear of his teammate Mark Webber.
Vettel, who is 46 points clear of second-placed Fernando Alonso of Ferrari in the drivers' championship, expects a keen battle for pole position in Saturday's qualifying session.
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"It was a good day, but it is still only a Friday," the German, a two-time winner of this race, told reporters.
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"It looks tight. If you look at it too much it can be a distraction, but I think it will be a close qualifying with many cars up there.
"Tomorrow, I expect it to be close. It is a short lap and there are not too many corners -- so not that much you can do right, and not much you can do wrong."
Red Bull announced earlier this week that Daniel Ricciardo, currently driving for Red Bull's sister team Toro Rosso, will replace Webber in 2014 when his fellow Australian quits F1 to race in the Le Mans series for Porsche.
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"Although we're quite competitive, we're not quick enough yet and will have to work hard tonight to see where we can make some improvements," said Webber.
"Of course we don't know what fuel loads other teams are on so we'll have to wait and see but there is a bit of work for us to do if we want to compete right at the front tomorrow."
Ricciardo, however, was off the pace -- 13th in the first session and 17th in the second.
"Unfortunately, we seem to have gone in the wrong direction," the 24-year-old said. "Having run only the hard (tires) in the morning, in the afternoon, I did not set a competitive time on the medium.
"I did make some mistakes and I will admit to that, but there were too many of them so we definitely need to get the car to suit me a bit better. At the moment, it's on a knife edge."
British-based racing company McLaren are celebrating the 50th anniversary of its Formula One team in 2013.
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New Jersey was originally scheduled to stage Formula One's inaugural Grand Prix of America in June 2013, and Red Bull took its RB7 car over to the state of New York one year early to test drive the streets.
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Lewis Hamilton won this race with McLaren in 2012, but a repeat performance with his current team Mercedes looks unlikely.
The 2008 world champion could only go sixth fastest in the afternoon session after setting the pace in the morning, just ahead of seventh-placed teammate Nico Rosberg.
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"Although we're quite competitive, we're not quick enough yet and will have to work hard tonight to see where we can make some improvements," said the Briton.
"Of course we don't know what fuel loads other teams are on so we'll have to wait and see, but there is a bit of work for us to do if we want to compete right at the front tomorrow."
All eyes will be on Alonso at Ferrari's home grand prix. The Spaniard registered the fifth fastest lap time, behind the Lotus duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean.
Alonso's teammate Felipe Massa was eighth fastest, with McLaren's Jenson Button and Sergio Perez rounding out the top 10.
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New Zealander Bruce McLaren came to England in 1958 and founded his eponymous race team in 1963 going on to win a first grand prix in a McLaren in 1968.
Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi would win the first of McLaren's 12 drivers' world titles in 1974. The M23 car also won the team championship for the first time.
McLaren are proud of their innovations on and off the track. In 1981 McLaren debuted a carbon fiber car - a concept that is now universal in Formula One.
Ayrton Senna (left) and Alain Prost (right) both won multiple world titles with McLaren but team boss Ron Dennis (far right) had to manage a fiery relationship between the rivals when they were paired in the team.
McLaren guided Lewis Hamilton to the world title in 2008 but the team have yet to win a driver or constructor crown since the Briton's epic win at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Former F1 driver David Coulthard was behind the wheel for the 2012 visit, causing a stir as he sped through Liberty State Park.
While the Hudson River flowed above, Coulthard tore through the tunnel below at speeds of up to 190 miles per hour.
Coulthard burns rubber, while the Statue of Liberty can be seen poking through the thick cloud of smoke.
The grand prix, which will not be held in 2014 either due to funding problems, was supposed to run through the New Jersey township of Weehawken.
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