Hamilton also dominates second practice

Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen took second and third, ahead of Hamilton's teammate Heikki Kovalainen.

After the morning rain, the second session saw completely dry track conditions, and was comparatively uneventful given the frenetic activity of the damp opening practice.

Hamilton had a near-miss with the slowing Toro Rosso of Sebastien Bourdais on his first run before setting a benchmark time of 1:15.817, which proved good enough to keep the Briton at the head of the pack for much of the rest of the session.

Massa edged increasingly close to the McLaren's time, though, and after 50 minutes he edged ahead with a 1:15.722 lap. Hamilton responded with a 1:15.739 shortly afterwards - which wasn't quite sufficient to topple the Ferrari - while Massa fell 0.011 seconds shy of his existing time when he re-emerged on soft tyres in the final minutes.

But Hamilton's last run of the afternoon, also on softs, proved much more productive, as he produced a 1:15.025 with one minute to go and put himself 0.697 seconds clear of Massa.

Raikkonen looked set to beat Massa to second until losing time in the stadium section on his best lap, so had to settle for third ahead of Kovalainen.

Mark Webber put a slightly troubled afternoon behind him to take a promising fifth for Red Bull with his last lap.

Having earlier been delayed by a clutch problem in the garage and then a trip over the gravel at the final corner, he vaulted up on the order on soft tyres in the closing seconds, pushing long-time 'best of the rest' man Fernando Alonso (Renault) down to sixth.

Williams's Nico Rosberg was seventh, ahead of the two BMWs, with Robert Kubica recovering from his morning crash to outpace Nick Heidfeld. David Coulthard completed the top ten in the second Red Bull.

Sebastian Vettel was as high as third for Toro Rosso early in the session, but ultimately slipped back to 11th. His teammate Bourdais again lost mileage to technical problems and was 18th.

In a largely serene session, Timo Glock proved some entertainment by getting his Toyota briefly airborne in a trip over the grass, while Rubens Barrichello spun his Honda at both the first corner and the Spitzkehre.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:15.025            37
 2.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:15.722  + 0.697   31
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:15.760  + 0.735   34
 4.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:15.990  + 0.965   37
 5.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:16.017  + 0.992   25
 6.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:16.230  + 1.205   38
 7.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:16.355  + 1.330   41
 8.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.363  + 1.338   36
 9.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.377  + 1.352   40
10.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:16.378  + 1.353   35
11.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:16.422  + 1.397   41
12.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:16.530  + 1.505   45
13.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:16.542  + 1.517   38
14.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:16.677  + 1.652   28
15.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:16.734  + 1.709   42
16.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:16.781  + 1.756   44
17.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:16.829  + 1.804   21
18.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:16.860  + 1.835   14
19.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.008  + 1.983   39
20.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.047  + 2.022   37

All Timing Unofficial