Hamilton tops final practice

The McLaren driver had escaped a scare early in the session when his McLaren cut out and stopped on the grass in the pit exit as he attempted to begin an installation lap.

Fortunately for Hamilton, his car was close enough to be retrieved by the pit marshals and the McLaren team. Repairs were effected swiftly, and he was able to join the session before the half-hour mark.

He initially went fourth fastest, and then improved to a 1:27.325 on his next run to usurp initial pacesetter Felipe Massa by 0.041 seconds.

The championship leader stayed on top as none of the top four drivers managed to improve when they switched to the softer tyres for their last runs.

Both Massa and Kimi Raikkonen set new fastest times in the first sector, but could not maintain the performance through the rest of the lap and had to settle for second and third, ahead of Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton's own attempt to find time on the soft compound ended with a spin at Turn 7. He rejoined without drama and his position at the top of the timesheets was not threatened.

Williams' Nico Rosberg was the fastest driver outside the McLaren/Ferrari quartet for most of the hour and duly ended up fifth, ahead of the two BMWs.

Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen languished down the order initially, before improving to eighth and 10th at the end - split by Red Bull's Mark Webber.

Jenson Button suffered a hydraulic leak during the session and had to cruise back to the pitlane, but Honda quickly rectified the problem and got him back on track to set the 15th fastest time.

Super Aguri driver Takuma Sato made the only notable mistake of the hour, as he spun into the Turn 3 gravel with 12 minutes to go.

He could not rejoin and dropped to 20th in the session results, just behind Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel, who had a major slide through Turn 8 on his last run.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:27.325           12
 2.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  1:27.366 + 0.041   15
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1:27.506 + 0.181   16
 4.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:27.743 + 0.418   13
 5.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:28.056 + 0.731   16
 6.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber         (B)  1:28.184 + 0.859   18
 7.  Kubica        BMW Sauber         (B)  1:28.224 + 0.899   21
 8.  Fisichella    Renault            (B)  1:28.261 + 0.936   20
 9.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:28.337 + 1.012   15
10.  Kovalainen    Renault            (B)  1:28.364 + 1.039   17
11.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:28.413 + 1.088   16
12.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:28.448 + 1.123   14
13.  R.Schumacher  Toyota             (B)  1:28.481 + 1.156   20
14.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  1:28.520 + 1.195   21
15.  Button        Honda              (B)  1:28.548 + 1.223   16
16.  Barrichello   Honda              (B)  1:28.715 + 1.390   18
17.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:28.755 + 1.430   16
18.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:28.937 + 1.612   20
19.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:29.408 + 2.083   19
20.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:29.436 + 2.111   14
21.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:30.044 + 2.719   22
22.  Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:30.712 + 3.387   21

All timing unofficial