Hamilton fastest in practice 3

His teammate Fernando Alonso was less than a tenth slower in second, while the Ferraris ended up only sixth and seventh, behind the BMW Saubers and David Coulthard' Red Bull car.

The four title contenders had swapped the top spot between them throughout the session.

Massa was the first to go for a quick lap, setting a 1:22.214 after 20 minutes, but Alonso beat this by 0.036 seconds almost immediately, then improved to a 1: 21.893 on his next lap. Hamilton then made it a temporary McLaren one-two with a 1:22.214 lap.

Raikkonen deposed the McLarens a few moments later, his 1:21.874 lap standing as the benchmark for 11 minutes before Massa beat it by 0.202 seconds.

Then with 20 minutes remaining, Hamilton put on a set of softer compound tyres and moved four tenths clear of the field, lapping in 1:21.233.

It proved impossible to beat - even for Hamilton, who was a tenth of a second adrift on his next effort. Alonso closed to within 0.079 seconds with his final lap, but could not give his home crowd the session-topping performance they desired.

The Ferraris were then pushed down the order as Robert Kubica, Nick Heidfeld and Coulthard all made late improvements. Coulthard had been in the top six for much of the session, showing very consistent pace for Red Bull Racing.

Anthony Davidson continued his habit of impressing in practice with the eighth fastest time. His Super Aguri teammate Takuma Sato had also been in the top ten earlier in the hour, as had Toro Rosso's Scott Speed, but they fell to 14th and 15th respectively by the end, albeit only just over a second from the top of the timesheets.

Nico Rosberg and Heikki Kovalainen completed the top ten, with Giancarlo Fisichella 11th after sitting out the first half-hour while his Renault's ECU was changed.

The session saw very little incidents, with Christijan Albers' trip over the grass and gravel after running very wide at Turn 12 being the only significant error during the hour.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time               Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:21.233            13
 2.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:21.312 +  0.079   13
 3.  Kubica        BMW Sauber         (B)  1:21.364 +  0.131   17
 4.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber         (B)  1:21.464 +  0.231   17
 5.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:21.556 +  0.323   12
 6.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  1:21.659 +  0.426   14
 7.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1:21.829 +  0.596   15
 8.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:21.845 +  0.612   15
 9.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:21.953 +  0.720   16
10.  Kovalainen    Renault            (B)  1:22.067 +  0.834   18
11.  Fisichella    Renault            (B)  1:22.140 +  0.907   12
12.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  1:22.174 +  0.941   25
13.  Barrichello   Honda              (B)  1:22.274 +  1.041   15
14.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:22.295 +  1.062   21
15.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:22.314 +  1.081   16
16.  R.Schumacher  Toyota             (B)  1:22.570 +  1.337   21
17.  Button        Honda              (B)  1:22.744 +  1.511   17
18.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:22.759 +  1.526   13
19.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:23.020 +  1.787   16
20.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:23.367 +  2.134    8
21.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:23.584 +  2.351   22
22.  Albers        Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:23.817 +  2.584   22

All timing unofficial