McLaren dominate practice 2

McLaren were only briefly headed during the session when the two Renaults vaulted up to first and second after 15 minutes, beating Hamilton and Fernando Alonso's initial times by a few fractions.

While Giancarlo Fisichella used the softer tyres for his 1:19.926 lap, teammate Heikki Kovalainen was running the hard compound when he outpaced the Italian by 0.030 seconds a few moments later.

Within seven minutes the McLarens had reclaimed the leading positions, with Hamilton lapping in 1:19.198 and then improving to 1:18.734 shortly afterwards.

Alonso remained slightly slower than his teammate on both runs, finishing the session on a 1:18.948.

The session saw significantly more activity than morning practice had, with even the front-runners taking to the track immediately and most completing longer than usual runs as they evaluated tyre performance on the unfamiliar track.

This meant that the majority of quick times were set early on before the field focused on race preparations.

Ferrari were not quite on McLaren's pace during this session, and both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen ran wide across the run-off areas on several occasions - Massa leaving the road twice on one lap. He took third, 0.749 seconds behind Hamilton and 0.231 seconds ahead of Raikkonen.

They were split by Jarno Trulli, who put in a headline-grabbing performance for circuit owners Toyota to end the day in fourth place.

The Renaults were edged back to sixth and seventh, ahead of David Coulthard and Trulli's teammate Ralf Schumacher, who had a half-spin at Turn 10.

BMW's Robert Kubica completed the top ten.

After his impressive morning performance, Spyker's Adrian Sutil starred again early on, holding seventh for the first half of the session. He was eventually edged back to 16th.

His teammate Sakon Yamamoto had a bizarre incident after 15 minutes when he had a spin in the final complex and was clipped by Rubens Barrichello's Honda as he tried to rejoin. It appeared that the Spyker had escaped damage, but its front wing then fell off as it arrived in its pit box.

Barrichello continued after the incident but struggled for speed all afternoon, remaining at the very bottom of the times until improving to 17th in the closing seconds.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time               Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:18.734            38
 2.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:18.948  + 0.214   34
 3.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  1:19.483  + 0.749   36
 4.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  1:19.711  + 0.977   35
 5.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1:19.714  + 0.980   29
 6.  Kovalainen    Renault            (B)  1:19.789  + 1.055   40
 7.  Fisichella    Renault            (B)  1:19.926  + 1.192   39
 8.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:19.949  + 1.215   33
 9.  R.Schumacher  Toyota             (B)  1:19.969  + 1.235   40
10.  Kubica        BMW Sauber         (B)  1:20.069  + 1.335   45
11.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:20.069  + 1.335   35
12.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:20.233  + 1.499   37
13.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:20.270  + 1.536   43
14.  Button        Honda              (B)  1:20.336  + 1.602   44
15.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber         (B)  1:20.462  + 1.728   36
16.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:20.736  + 2.002   37
17.  Barrichello   Honda              (B)  1:20.889  + 2.155   33
18.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:20.985  + 2.251   44
19.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:20.997  + 2.263   38
20.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:21.007  + 2.273   34
21.  Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:21.305  + 2.571   38
22.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:21.352  + 2.618   34