Hamilton quickest in second practice

For much of the session the McLaren had monopolised the leading positions, but they were split in the closing stages by Renault's Nelson Piquet, with his teammate Fernando Alonso taking fourth as both used the super-soft Bridgestones for their last runs.

Hamilton hit the front seven minutes into second practice, and for the majority of the subsequent action either the Briton or his teammate Heikki Kovalainen led the way, with the pair swapping the advantage several times while evaluating the new nose wings first seen in the recent Jerez test.

With six minutes remaining, Hamilton used the softer tyres to produce the 1:20.554 lap that would stand as the best of the session, with Kovalainen being edged down to third when Piquet leapt up the order shortly afterwards - although the Renault driver had a spin at Turn 1 immediately after setting his quick time.

Teammate Alonso took fourth with his second flying lap on soft tyres after a big brake lock-up into Turn 1 on his first attempt. He finished the afternoon ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, and the BMWs of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld.

Jarno Trulli (Toyota) claimed ninth, with Nico Rosberg improving on Williams' poor morning times to secure 10th place. His teammate Kazuki Nakajima had the most dramatic incident of the session when he spun into the wall on his last flying lap, but the car only lightly nudged the barriers and was able to continue.

The only other action of note was a further piece of bad luck for Sebastian Vettel, whose Toro Rosso had expired with a hydraulic failure after just four laps in the morning. This time it managed only five laps before stopped in virtually the same place on the track.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:20.554            35
 2.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:20.748  + 0.194   38
 3.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:20.760  + 0.206   33
 4.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:20.928  + 0.374   35
 5.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:21.009  + 0.455   35
 6.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:21.010  + 0.456   36
 7.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:21.138  + 0.584   46
 8.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:21.363  + 0.809   36
 9.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:21.505  + 0.951   42
10.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:21.581  + 1.027   34
11.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:21.662  + 1.108   39
12.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:21.733  + 1.179   43
13.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:21.837  + 1.283   34
14.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:21.902  + 1.348   33
15.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:21.955  + 1.401   41
16.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:22.150  + 1.596   41
17.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:22.197  + 1.643   36
18.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:22.358  + 1.804   37
19.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:22.448  + 1.894   33
20.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:22.945  + 2.391    5