Hamilton topped the timesheet with a lap of 1min 22.821sec around a circuit
renowned for being tight and twisty, finishing 0.101sec clear of Button.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, now 34 points clear of Red Bull’s Mark Webber at
the top of the driver’s championship after his win in Germany, was the
nearest challenger, but he was more half a second behind Hamilton.
Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher were fourth and sixth,
sandwiching Romain Grosjean in his Lotus. Schumacher, the seven-times
champion, was a second down.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen were just behind Schumacher,
with Williams’ reserve driver Valtteri Bottas again putting in another solid
Friday morning outing to finish ninth, 1.331sec down.
Webber and Vettel were 13th and 15th, but the duo opted for heavier fuel runs
and had much more to come. Force India’s Paul di Resta was 14th and
complained that his car was difficult to drive.
At the bottom, HRT reserve Dani Clos – standing in for Narain Karthikeyan –
was 5.355sec behind Hamilton and just over a second down on team-mate Pedro
de la Rosa.