Hamilton optimistic of strong weekend

The championship leader set a best time of 1:15.752 to finish on the top of the times ahead of BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica.

Hamilton, who scored his maiden victory in Canada last year, admitted his car felt good in the afternoon and was left encouraged by his pace.

"It's great to be back in Montreal, the scene of my first Grand Prix victory one year ago," said Hamilton. "We chose not to use our allocation of wet tyres for the majority of the opening session but managed a run on dry tyres towards the end of the morning.

"In the afternoon, we were able to improve the car on every run - I felt very comfortable with the set-up and balance, particularly when we switched to the option tyre, which allowed me to lean on the car as the track conditions improved.

"We've still got some work to do ahead of qualifying and the race, but we've already got some positive running under our belts."

Heikki Kovalainen was not so pleased with his car's balance during the day, the Finn finishing in fourth, over half a second behind Hamilton.

"Today was a pretty useful day, although I don't really feel as though I've yet found a truly perfect balance," he said. "We chose not to carry out too much running this morning, but we were able to start developing the car in the afternoon.

"We worked hard on set-up, focusing particularly on calming the rear-end, but I have yet to really start attacking the track. However, by the end of the session, I felt we'd come a long way towards resolving our main issues.

"After we've had a good look at the tyres and made some changes ahead of tomorrow morning's practice session, I think we'll be in much better shape."