Hamilton takes top spot in second practice session

Hamilton, who placed third last year in Melbourne in his first Formula One race, took 1 minute, 26.559 minutes to drive the 5.3-kilometre course at Albert Park.

 The British driver who finished second in the standings in his rookie season last year bettered the time of second-placed driver, Australian Mark Webber, driving for Red Bull, by 0.914 seconds.

 Third place went to Brazilian Felipe Massa for Ferrari, who was 1.081 seconds behind Hamilton.

 The first place finisher from Friday's morning session, defending world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who last year won the Australian Grand Prix in his maiden race for Ferrari, finished sixth in the afternoon with a time of 1:28.208, well behind his morning finish of 1:26.461.

 Hamilton finished second in the morning, 0.487 seconds behind the Finn, while Massa again was third, 0.01 second behind Hamilton.

 In the afternoon session, another McLaren-Mercedes driver took fourth place, Heikki Kovalainen of Finland (1:27.683), and Red Bull was fifth with David Coulthard of Britain (1:28.037).

 In the morning session, Kovalainen was again fourth with his best time of the day at 1:27.114. Webber was fifth (1:28.263), followed by two-time world champion Fernando Alonso (1:28.360), who returned to Renault at the end of last season after a disappointing year with McLaren. He finished 13th in the afternoon session.

 The two Force India drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil took their new team to ninth and 17th place, respectively, in the afternoon session and 12th and 17th place in the morning.

 Qualifying for Sunday's race takes place Saturday.