Hamilton dominates final practice

Sebastian Vettel took second for Red Bull, with Nico Rosberg's Williams third and Heikki Kovalainen making it two McLarens in the top four.

Hamilton, who had been unhappy with his car's performance yesterday but had to switch to a new chassis overnight to cure an electrical problem, was quickest for most of the session.

The order had been swapping frenetically in the first 25 minutes, but then the world champion hit the front with a time one second clear of everyone's best efforts at that stage. He shaved a further tenth off that pace on his next run, getting down to a 1m48.197s.

That was the best time achieved on the harder rubber, as Vettel had to use super softs to finally beat Hamilton.

The McLaren went faster still when Hamilton tried super softs a few minutes later - although his run was interrupted by a trip down the Turn 8 escape road. It took him half a minute to reverse back on course, but he then reclaimed the top spot next time around with a 1m47.632s - nearly three tenths clear of Vettel.

Rosberg and Kovalainen were 0.7s off the pace in third and fourth, ahead of the two BMWs and Rubens Barrichello, who was frustrated to encounter Renault's Romain Grosjean on his last run.

But Barrichello was happier than his Brawn team-mate Jenson Button, as the championship leader complained vehemently over the radio about his car's handling as he struggled to 14th.

The two Toyotas took eighth and 10th, sandwiching an eye-catching performance from Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi. The Swiss driver's team-mate Jaime Alguersuari had a delay at the start of the session when his car stalled at the pit exit and had to be pulled back to the team.

Alguersuari ended up 18th, ahead of only Grosjean and Giancarlo Fisichella - who was a long way off the pace for Ferrari.

Unlike yesterday, all 20 drivers managed to stay out of the wall in this session. Kimi Raikkonen, Tonio Liuzzi and Vettel all emulated Hamilton's escape road visit, but rejoined unscathed.

Pos  Driver       Car                        Time               Laps
 1.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:47.632           15
 2.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:47.909  + 0.277  17
 3.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:48.332  + 0.700  18
 4.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:48.420  + 0.788  14
 5.  Kubica       BMW Sauber            (B)  1:48.501  + 0.869  16
 6.  Heidfeld     BMW Sauber            (B)  1:48.526  + 0.894  13
 7.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:48.551  + 0.919  16
 8.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:48.673  + 1.041  17
 9.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:48.754  + 1.122  17
10.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:48.757  + 1.125  12
11.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:48.831  + 1.199  17
12.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:48.864  + 1.232  16
13.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:48.876  + 1.244  15
14.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:48.921  + 1.289  17
15.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:49.032  + 1.400  15
16.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:49.055  + 1.423  16
17.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:49.122  + 1.490  17
18.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:49.399  + 1.767  17
19.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:49.641  + 2.009  16
20.  Fisichella   Ferrari               (B)  1:50.039  + 2.407  21

All timing unofficial