On that occasion Hamilton finished almost a second quicker than any of his rivals – with team-mate Jenson Button his nearest challenger – such was his instant rapport with the 5.793km track.

After yesterday remarking on his frustration of being “an easy target” for the negativity he has attracted throughout what has so far primarily been a season to forget, it was a perfect riposte.

Hamilton should also have finished top dog in the afternoon, yet despite ideal conditions with clear blue skies and temperatures of 29 degrees centigrade, his morning lap could not be bettered.

At one stage he was on the cards to do so as he set a personal best in sector one, and was quickest of all in sector two.

However, in the final sector was baulked by Alguersuari in his Toro Rosso and was forced to abort the lap, so forcing him to settle for second best behind Vettel.

The reigning champion, who is on course for back-to-back titles as he holds sway in the standings by 92 points to Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber, topped the standings with a time of 1:24.010, beating Hamilton by 0.036secs.

That, however, was 0.145secs adrift of Hamilton’s hot lap in the morning, suggesting there is plenty more to come from the leading players in tomorrow’s qualifying.

Promisingly for Mercedes, seven-times champion Michael Schumacher was third on the timesheet, just over a third of a second behind Vettel.

Ferrari, who normally like to give their fans something to cheer in Friday practice, had to settle for fourth and fifth quickest, with Felipe Massa ahead of Fernando Alonso on this occasion.

Webber and Button were sixth and seventh, just under half a second down, with everybody else over a second off the pace.

The best of the rest was headed by Sauber duo Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi, with Renault’s Bruno Senna marginally ahead of his team-mate in Vitaly Petrov in 10th and 11th.

It was another good session for the Brazilian who is still getting to grips with the car following his recent elevation into the race seat from reserve prior to the last race in Belgium.

In 12th and 13th, again team-mates were paired together in the form of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta, the duo around 1.5secs down and split by 0.187secs.

Sebastien Buemi was involved in the only noteworthy incident, the Swiss hitting a tyre barrier coming out of the right-handed sweep of the Parabolica, burying his noseless car in a gravel trap.

At the back of the field Hispania Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo managed just seven laps due to technical issues, the Australian finishing nearly six seconds down.