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Hamilton also tops second practice

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton remained on top in second practice for the Chinese Grand Prix, as his first quick time remained unbeaten all afternoon

His title rival Felipe Massa was only sixth fastest, with the two Renaults, Toyota's Jarno Trulli and Red Bull's Mark Webber splitting the championship rivals.

Hamilton came out for a short run as soon as the session began and set an early 1:35.750 before pitting.

That put him a full second clear of the pack at the time, and unusually his first time stood as the benchmark throughout the session.

Indeed few drivers managed to improve on their early laps until the final minutes, and the title contenders in particular struggled to gain any time when they tried the softer tyres.

Trulli fared better on the softs and spent much of the session in second until being pushed back to fourth when Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet jumped up the order late on.

Massa was edged right back to 10th as others improved in the closing minutes, but salvaged sixth behind Webber with his final lap, despite running slightly wide at the last corner.

Bourdais took seventh, despite ending the session off the road. The Frenchman had a series of adventures at Turn 2 - twice running wide over the grass strip there before eventually spinning into the gravel trap with ten minutes to go.

His teammate Sebastian Vettel also explored the circuit's limits, running very wide at both Turn 2 and on the exit of the fast Turn 13.

Webber was another driver to run wide over the Turn 2 run-off, while Turn 12 continued to cause problems too, with both Kimi Raikkonen and Piquet spinning there.

Raikkonen ended the session in eighth, with Nick Heidfeld (BMW) and Nico Rosberg (Williams) completing the top ten, the latter having held fourth for much of the session.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:35.750            33
 2.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:36.024  + 0.274   36
 3.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:36.094  + 0.344   38
 4.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:36.159  + 0.409   32
 5.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:36.375  + 0.625   38
 6.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:36.480  + 0.730   31
 7.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:36.529  + 0.779   32
 8.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:36.542  + 0.792   34
 9.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:36.553  + 0.803   38
10.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:36.556  + 0.806   33
11.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:36.615  + 0.865   33
12.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:36.775  + 1.025   37
13.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:36.797  + 1.047   33
14.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:36.808  + 1.058   36
15.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:36.925  + 1.175   38
16.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:36.975  + 1.225   31
17.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:37.473  + 1.723   38
18.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:37.617  + 1.867   33
19.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:37.800  + 2.050   37
20.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:37.904  + 2.154   36

All Timing Unofficial

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