Practice, of course, means nothing in the grand scheme of things, but after a week of jibes from his fellow drivers, digs from the media and bleating from his fan base, it has to be said that as responses go, it was a pretty impressive one. He didn't have both sessions completely his own way, but Hamilton hit the front just after the halfway point of FP1 (despite an earlier off at the banked turn 13), and wasted less time in establishing himself in the second session. His opening flying lap in FP1 put him a second clear of the field at the time, and despite everyone's best efforts, it remained the benchmark for the rest of the 90 minutes session.His main title rival Felipe Massa squabbled with the Brit over the top time early on in the first session, and the Brazilian ended FP1 second for Ferrari, but he struggled to get to grips with the track in the afternoon, as most of the frontrunners found the softer compound tyre about as grippy as a flip flop on ice. He ended FP2 a disgruntled 6th. His team mate Kimi Raikkonen fared even worse down in 8th place after a spin. The Finn had at least been 3rd quickest in the morning session, ahead of Hamilton's team mate Heikki Kovalainen, who himself slipped back to a dire 13th in FP2.
The championship outsider, and Patty favourite, Robert Kubica spent the day gamely tugging at the coat tails of the anointed pair of title favourites, but his hopes seem to rest solely on misfortune and mistakes confounding his quicker rivals. He was 5th in FP1, but again struggled on the softer rubber in the afternoon, and he slipped back to 12th, behind even his team mate Nick Heidfeld, who managed 9th in the afternoon after going 7th in the morning.
With the usual suspects struggling in FP2, the newly-quick Renault R28 made hay in their absence, as double race winner Fernando Alonso finished second quickest ahead of his team mate, the formerly useless Nelson Piquet Jr. Even in the morning, the Régie pairing weren't exactly struggling, Alonso 6th and Piquet 8th (despite "doing a Hamilton" in the pit lane when he ran off into the gravel trap), and the Spaniard at least could well be a joker in the pack when it comes to race day.
The other runners to make the top ten in FP1 were the Toro Rossos of Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Vettel, pushing the main Red Bull team's chargers down to 11th (Webber, who suffered a spin at the chicane) and 14th (Coulthard). Toyota also struggled in the morning session, Jarno Trulli limping to 18th place after a spin at the turn 12 chicane and Timo Glock faring little better in 16th. Even a Honda managed to beat them both, Jenson Button displaying the mercurial ability to heft his car up higher than it deserves during practice (an ability that constantly seems to disappear come qualifying) as he ended 12th, one spot ahead of Kazuki Nakajima's Williams and five spots clear of his team mate Barrichello.
Toyota and Red Bull struck back in the afternoon, with Trulli hoisting his car into 4th place behind the Renaults and Mark Webber faring just one place worse in his RB4, recovering after a wide moment at the second corner. Both drivers seemed to like the soft tyres a lot more than some of their more illustrious counterparts did, and both ending the day ahead of Massa. Bourdais finished 7th despite ending the session in the gravel trap at turn 2, while further down, Nico Rosberg produced the only real happy moment for Williams all day, sneaking into the top ten. FP2 was another session to forget for the feeble Hondas though, despite completing 73 laps of running between them, Button and Barrichello ended the day 19th and 20th.
All in all, this day of success for Hamilton will count for nothing if it fails to lead to translate into similar performances over the next two days, but as starting points for a title win go, you'd struggle to do much better.
| FP1 Times | |||
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren - Mercedes | 1:35.630 |
| 2 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:36.020 |
| 3 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:36.052 |
| 4 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren - Mercedes | 1:36.103 |
| 5 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1:36.507 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:36.661 |
| 7 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 1:37.040 |
| 8 | Sebastien Bourdais | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | 1:37.070 |
| 9 | Nelson Piquet Jr | Renault | 1:37.180 |
| 10 | Sebastian Vettel | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | 1:37.278 |
| 11 | Mark Webber | Red Bull - Renault | 1:37.491 |
| 12 | Jenson Button | Honda | 1:37.619 |
| 13 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams - Toyota | 1:37.630 |
| 14 | David Coulthard | Red Bull - Renault | 1:37.638 |
| 15 | Nico Rosberg | Williams - Toyota | 1:37.638 |
| 16 | Timo Glock | Toyota | 1:37.664 |
| 17 | Rubens Barrichello | Honda | 1:37.827 |
| 18 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1:38.219 |
| 19 | Adrian Sutil | Force India - Ferrari | 1:38.285 |
| 20 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India - Ferrari | 1:38.479 |
| FP2 Times | |||
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren - Mercedes | 1:35.750 |
| 2 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:36.024 |
| 3 | Nelson Piquet Jr | Renault | 1:36.094 |
| 4 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1:36.159 |
| 5 | Mark Webber | Red Bull - Renault | 1:36.375 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:36.480 |
| 7 | Sebastien Bourdais | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | 1:36.529 |
| 8 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:36.542 |
| 9 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 1:36.553 |
| 10 | Nico Rosberg | Williams - Toyota | 1:36.556 |
| 11 | Timo Glock | Toyota | 1:36.615 |
| 12 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1:36.775 |
| 13 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren - Mercedes | 1:36.797 |
| 14 | David Coulthard | Red Bull - Renault | 1:36.808 |
| 15 | Sebastian Vettel | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | 1:36.925 |
| 16 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams - Toyota | 1:36.975 |
| 17 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India - Ferrari | 1:37.473 |
| 18 | Adrian Sutil | Force India - Ferrari | 1:37.617 |
| 19 | Jenson Button | Honda | 1:37.800 |
| 20 | Rubens Barrichello | Honda | 1:37.904 |
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