Hamilton quickest in practice 2

Ferrari had looked set for a one-two until Hamilton's late lap, with the McLarens having been a second off their title rivals' pace for much of the afternoon.

But as the track temperature cooled, Hamilton produced a 1:35.055 lap to beat Massa by 0.151 seconds. He then set even faster sector times two laps later before choosing to pit rather than raise the bar further.

Having missed half the session after running out of fuel in the middle of the circuit this morning, Massa's Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen set the early pace when afternoon practice commenced.

The world champion set a 1:36.045 lap on his first run, then improved to 1:35.627 when he tried the soft Bridgestones.

Massa gradually edged closer to Raikkonen's time, before moving ahead in the final 20 minutes.

He rejoined for another soft tyre run after being beaten by Hamilton, but was unable to improve and had to settle for second.

Although Raikkonen got his time down to 1:35.428, he remained third.

Jenson Button vaulted to a surprise fourth place for Honda in the final seconds of the session, pushing Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel down to fifth. The young German had been amongst the front-runners all afternoon, having been as high as second position early on.

Jarno Trulli (Toyota) completed the top six, with Hamilton's McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen only seventh fastest.

Giancarlo Fisichella got Force India into the top ten again, taking ninth place between BMW's Robert Kubica and Williams' Kazuki Nakajima.

After their promising morning, Renault slipped to 14th and 15th this afternoon. Fernando Alonso, who spun at the final hairpin, was again fractionally faster than teammate Nelson Piquet.

Red Bull's David Coulthard and Toro Rosso's Sebastien Bourdais both failed to set a time. Coulthard remained in the garage as RBR continued with repairs and investigations following his dramatic crash in the first session, while Bourdais suffered an apparent engine failure on his first lap of the afternoon.

Despite predictions of thunderstorms throughout the weekend, conditions remained dry throughout Friday practice, with no rain falling at Sepang so far today.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:35.055           32
 2.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:35.206 + 0.151   33
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:35.428 + 0.373   36
 4.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:36.037 + 0.982   40
 5.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:36.474 + 1.419   35
 6.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:36.493 + 1.438   38
 7.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:36.512 + 1.457   30
 8.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:36.671 + 1.616   33
 9.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:36.756 + 1.701   37
10.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:36.838 + 1.783   34
11.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:36.879 + 1.824   38
12.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:36.908 + 1.853   36
13.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:37.106 + 2.051   35
14.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:37.328 + 2.273   23
15.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:37.331 + 2.276   42
16.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:37.346 + 2.291   37
17.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:37.512 + 2.457   35
18.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:37.614 + 2.559   35
19.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:39.021 + 3.966   27
20.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:39.361 + 4.306   30
21.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  No time             1
22.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  No time

All Timing Unofficial