Hamilton quickest in final practice

The McLarens were quickest for the majority of the session, with Hamilton generally holding the top spot and regularly improving his benchmark times until he got down to a best of 1m16.259s on the harder tyres.

Even on the super soft tyres, no one was able to beat that time, and Hamilton then went faster still on his softer rubber, improving to 1m16.058s, before lightly brushing the wall on his next lap.

Just afterwards, the yellow flags came out when Lucas di Grassi spun off at the hairpin, preventing anyone else from putting a flat-out lap in during the last minute.

Mark Webber took second for Red Bull, 0.282 seconds behind Hamilton and just ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) was fourth, with Sebastian Vettel fifth as Red Bull was the only team to get both cars in the top five.

Renault's Robert Kubica and Force India's Adrian Sutil were next up, while after battling Hamilton for the top spot for a while, Jenson Button eventually dropped to eighth in the second McLaren.

Tonio Liuzzi and Vitaly Petrov completed the top ten for Force India and Renault respectively.

Felipe Massa was only 12th, and concerned that he might have damaged his Ferrari when he scraped the wall late on.

Mercedes' Nico Rosberg had to sit out most of the hour with clutch issues, only getting out for a very brief run at the end, leaving him 18th.

He was still better off than Karun Chandhok, whose Hispania stopped in the pit exit with hydraulic problems as he tried to set out when the session commenced.


Pos  Driver         Team                   Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:16.058            15
 2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:16.340  + 0.282   16
 3.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:16.495  + 0.437   19
 4.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:16.536  + 0.478   15
 5.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:16.582  + 0.524   16
 6.  Kubica         Renault                1:16.653  + 0.595   18
 7.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:16.673  + 0.615   15
 8.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:16.699  + 0.641   16
 9.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:16.814  + 0.756   15
10.  Petrov         Renault                1:16.982  + 0.924   18
11.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:17.121  + 1.063   16
12.  Massa          Ferrari                1:17.231  + 1.173   16
13.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:17.331  + 1.273   22
14.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:17.548  + 1.490   20
15.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari         1:17.609  + 1.551   16
16.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:17.633  + 1.575   21
17.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:17.789  + 1.731   18
18.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:17.979  + 1.921    4
19.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:19.013  + 2.955   15
20.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:19.447  + 3.389   16
21.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:19.536  + 3.478   22
22.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:19.844  + 3.786   20
23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:20.325  + 4.267   18
24.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth                                1