Hamilton keeps McLaren on top in China

Hamilton, who is bidding to become the fourth different winner of a grand prix in 2010 this weekend, bumped Mercedes' Nico Rosberg from the top spot half way through the 90-minute session on a set of option tyres en route to a 1m35.217s lap.

No one else managed to get within 0.2s of that mark for the rest of the day.

Rosberg came closest, improving on his own time when he switched to the options, to set a 1m35.465s, just over a tenth faster than Jenson Button, who was third.

Michael Schumacher improved to fourth in FP2, and was as close as he has been to team-mate Rosberg this year, with a 1m35.602s laps. Though on occasions, the seven-time champion looked lurid.

Sebastian Vettel was more than half a second away from the ultimate pace for Red Bull, in fifth position just ahead of team-mate Mark Webber.

Adrian Sutil was seventh, Jaime Alguersuari eighth (in the sole running Toro Rosso - team-mate Sebastien Buemi remaining pit-bound following his morning shunt), Robert Kubica ninth and Fernando Alonso tenth.

The Ferrari man looked lurid for much of the session as he worked hard to recover the time he lost this morning, lapping just over 0.3s faster than team-mate Felipe Massa.

Pos  Driver         Team                    Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:35.217            26
 2.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:35.465  + 0.248   22
 3.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:35.593  + 0.376   26
 4.  Schumacher     Mercedes                1:35.602  + 0.385   28
 5.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:35.791  + 0.574   30
 6.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault        1:35.995  + 0.778   29
 7.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1:36.254  + 1.037   31
 8.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:36.377  + 1.160   43
 9.  Kubica         Renault                 1:36.389  + 1.172   29
10.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:36.604  + 1.387   33
11.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:36.944  + 1.727   36
12.  Petrov         Renault                 1:36.986  + 1.769   27
13.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari          1:37.421  + 2.204   32
14.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:37.431  + 2.214   33
15.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1:37.657  + 2.440   30
16.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:37.804  + 2.587   31
17.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth       1:37.867  + 2.650   29
18.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth          1:39.624  + 4.407   35
19.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          1:39.947  + 4.730   30
20.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         1:40.233  + 5.016   27
21.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth            1:41.008  + 5.791   32
22.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth         1:41.107  + 5.890   28
23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth            1:41.345  + 6.128   32
24.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari

All Timing Unofficial