Hamilton leads the way in testing

The Briton tried the new engine cover design out for four laps prior to an early lunch caused by a rain shower, before setting his fastest time of one minute 15.483 seconds in the afternoon.

Hamilton's performance will almost certainly have been helped by further aerodynamic and suspension modifications that his team are introducing as they knuckle down for the championship fight with Ferrari.

Kimi Raikkonen ended the day second fastest overall, but was more than three tenths of a second adrift of Hamilton. Nico Rosberg was third quickest for Williams, while Adrian Sutil was an encouraging fourth quickest for Force India.

The day was marred by a number of rain showers that hampered the teams' progress over the day, although they were still able to complete a great deal of dry running.

The only red flag of the day was caused when Alexander Wurz spun off at the Mercedes Tribune corner while running on wet tyres. He had spent the day evaluating a new front wing.

Toyota were the other team trying out major updates, with new front and rear wings on their TF108 helping Kamui Kobayashi set the sixth quickest time.

Pos  Driver       Team                     Time      Laps
 1.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:15.483  75
 2.  Raikkonen    Ferrari             (B)  1:15.803  63
 3.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:16.099  87
 4.  Sutil        Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:16.516  97
 5.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:16.533  113
 6.  Kobayashi    Toyota              (B)  1:16.570  65
 7.  Heidfeld     BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.593  59
 8.  Piquet       Renault             (B)  1:16.856  111
 9.  Coulthard    Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:17.361  67
10.  Wurz         Honda               (B)  1:17.825  89

All timing unofficial