McLaren remains on top in final practice

The world champion had a 0.399-second margin over BMW's Nick Heidfeld in second place, with Heikki Kovalainen putting the second McLaren fourth behind Williams's Nico Rosberg.

The title contenders barely featured at the top of the times, with Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel only ninth and 10th for Red Bull, and the Brawns back in 13th and 17th, Jenson Button slower than team-mate Rubens Barrichello.

Hamilton had an answer for everything the rest of the field could throw at him this morning. He knocked team-mate Kovalainen off the top spot early on, then was able to reclaim the place on two occasions after first Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi, then Ferrari's Felipe Massa briefly usurped him.

Rosberg managed to close to within a few hundredths of a second of the McLaren, but again Hamilton had time in hand and extended his advantage once more.

Heidfeld then got between Hamilton and Rosberg, with Kovalainen also looking set to return to the top three until some errors in the second part of his last lap left him fourth.

Buemi remained in touch with the front-runners and ended the morning fifth. His novice team-mate Jaime Alguersuari was as high as second in the middle of the session, but was pushed back to 18th by the end.

Timo Glock missed the majority of the session after his Toyota developed a hydraulic leak during its first flying lap. He managed to get back to the pits for repairs, which were completed in time for him to rejoin in the final minutes and leap up to sixth.

Force India's Adrian Sutil provided the only accident of the morning, veering through the gravel and into the tyre barrier after misjudging the entry to Turn 8.

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:21.009           19
 2.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:21.408 + 0.399   23
 3.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:21.509 + 0.500   21
 4.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:21.655 + 0.646   20
 5.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:21.800 + 0.791   23
 6.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:21.849 + 0.840   12
 7.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:21.911 + 0.902   19
 8.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:21.935 + 0.926   19
 9.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:21.936 + 0.927   16
10.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:21.971 + 0.962   21
11.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:22.076 + 1.067   20
12.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:22.097 + 1.088   25
13.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:22.101 + 1.092   22
14.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:22.210 + 1.201   17
15.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:22.270 + 1.261   20
16.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:22.274 + 1.265   19
17.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:22.312 + 1.303   22
18.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:22.391 + 1.382   20
19.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:22.684 + 1.675   23
20.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:23.231 + 2.222   16

All timing unofficial