The morning session went to Ferrari but the afternoon belonged to McLaren with Hamilton topping the time sheets.
Kovalainen had spent most of the session very close behind his team mate until Piquet came out on the super-soft tyres, put in a superb lap, and claimed second place in his Renault.
For most of the session the two McLarens traded to top lap time before the Brit finally capped it with a time of 1m20.554s.
Alonso put in yet another strong performance to finish the afternoon in fourth, leaving the Ferrari’s of Raikkonen and Massa fifth and sixth behind him respectively.
The BMW’s followed on behind the Ferraris. Heidfeld finished seventh, complaining throughout the second half of the session that it was ‘nearly impossible to say anything about the balance’ of his car because of the dusty surface and tyre graining problems.
Toyota’s Trulli and Williams’ Rosberg completed the top ten.
| Driver | Team | Time | |
| 1 | Hamilton | McLaren | 1m20.554 |
| 2 | Piquet | Renault | 1m20.748 |
| 3 | Kovalainen | McLaren | 1m20.760 |
| 4 | Alonso | Renault | 1m20.928 |
| 5 | Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1m21.009 |
| 6 | Massa | Ferrari | 1m21.010 |
| 7 | Heidfeld | BMW | 1m21.138 |
| 8 | Kubica | BMW | 1m21.363 |
| 9 | Trulli | Toyota | 1m21.505 |
| 10 | Rosberg | Williams | 1m21.581 |
| 11 | Glock | Toyota | 1m21.662 |
| 12 | Webber | Red Bull Racing | 1m21.733 |
| 13 | Coulthard | Red Bull Racing | 1m21.837 |
| 14 | Nakajima | Williams | 1m21.902 |
| 15 | Bourdais | Toro Rosso | 1m21.955 |
| 16 | Button | Honda | 1m22.150 |
| 17 | Fisichella | Force India | 1m22.197 |
| 18 | Sutil | Force India | 1m22.358 |
| 19 | Barrichello | Honda | 1m22.448 |
| 20 | Vettel | Toro Rosso | 1m22.945 |
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