McLaren one-two in practice 1

The McLarens remained a step ahead of Ferrari throughout the session, with Fernando Alonso going fastest on a 1:22.268 with just under an hour to go.

Kimi Raikkonen moved to second shortly afterwards, initially lapping 0.130 seconds slower than the world champion, before closing the gap to 0.023 seconds on his next run.

Hamilton deposed his teammate at the head of the timesheets after an hour, producing a 1:22.265 lap. The rookie then tried the softer compound tyres at the end of the session and improved his advantage to nearly four tenths of a second, lapping in 1:21.880.

Raikkonen had to settle for third behind the McLarens, with BMW's Robert Kubica eventually moving up to fourth ahead of Felipe Massa, who didn't feature in the battle for the fastest time.

Super Aguri's Anthony Davidson continued his run of superb practice times by jumping from the midfield to sixth in the closing minutes.

He was followed by the two Toyotas, who had dominated the opening half-hour of the session and remained fifth and sixth until Kubica and Davidson's late improvements.

Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button completed the top ten, while the Renaults slipped down to 14th and 15th in the final moments having been in the top ten for most of the morning.

The session passed virtually without incident, with Takuma Sato's trip over the kerbs at the revised final corner the only mistake of note.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:21.880            22
 2.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:22.268  + 0.388   21
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1:22.291  + 0.411   19
 4.  Kubica        BMW Sauber         (B)  1:22.446  + 0.566   21
 5.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  1:22.565  + 0.685   15
 6.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:22.665  + 0.785   21
 7.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  1:22.740  + 0.860   28
 8.  R.Schumacher  Toyota             (B)  1:22.843  + 0.963   23
 9.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:23.048  + 1.168   28
10.  Button        Honda              (B)  1:23.114  + 1.234   22
11.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:23.131  + 1.251   23
12.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber         (B)  1:23.170  + 1.290   26
13.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:23.316  + 1.436   22
14.  Kovalainen    Renault            (B)  1:23.322  + 1.442   24
15.  Fisichella    Renault            (B)  1:23.397  + 1.517   21
16.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:23.428  + 1.548   21
17.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:23.444  + 1.564   21
18.  Barrichello   Honda              (B)  1:23.479  + 1.599   23
19.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:23.954  + 2.074   25
20.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:24.104  + 2.224   24
21.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:24.179  + 2.299   19
22.  Albers        Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:24.396  + 2.516   25