Hamilton quickest in practice 2

The McLaren man, returning to the scene of his maiden Grand Prix victory, put in a lap of 1:15.766 that was within an ace of his 2007 pole lap.

Then, with the matter already seemingly beyond debate, the Briton produced a spectacular final lap to lower his time to 1:15.752, getting airborne as he thumped the kerbs at the final chicane.

Until then it looked as if Robert Kubica would take the honours after hustling BMW to the top of the times.

The BMW driver set a 1:16.023 with just under half an hour of the session left, despite brushing the wall on the exit of Turn Four.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest, but twice he looked as though he could have gone quicker had he not been forced to back off in the middle sector.

The first time it happened while track officials cleared away Timo Glock's Toyota - the German having clouted the same wall slightly harder than Kubica - and the second time when David Coulthard spun at Turn Six.

McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen also might have gone quicker as well but for a small error, but still managed the fourth fastest time.

Felipe Massa was fifth quickest, but missed the last 15 minutes of the session when his Ferrari appeared to suffer a technical failure on the exit of the hairpin.

Kubica's teammate Nick Heidfeld was fast early in the 90 minutes, but dropped back as the session continued.

Mark Webber was seventh, his attempt to improve further ruined by a spin, while Nico Rosberg put in a late effort to push the impressive Sebastian Vettel back to ninth. Jarno Trulli completed the top ten.

Both Renaults were in the wars. Fernando Alonso spun halfway through the session at Turn Two and couldn't get his car restarted.

Meanwhile, Nelson Piquet's woes continued as he suffered a gearbox failure.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:15.752            42
 2.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.023  + 0.271   41
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:16.093  + 0.341   39
 4.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:16.331  + 0.579   36
 5.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:16.413  + 0.661   27
 6.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.589  + 0.837   43
 7.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:16.604  + 0.852   39
 8.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:16.767  + 1.015   37
 9.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:17.019  + 1.267   43
10.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:17.068  + 1.316   46
11.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:17.242  + 1.490   37
12.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:17.334  + 1.582   31
13.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:17.462  + 1.710   39
14.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.508  + 1.756   39
15.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:17.549  + 1.797   31
16.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:17.559  + 1.807   38
17.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:17.644  + 1.892   30
18.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.813  + 2.061   37
19.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:17.842  + 2.090   39
20.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:18.076  + 2.324   17

All timing unofficial