Hamilton finished 0.613 seconds behind his former team-mate in second while Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was third with a time of 1:45.246.

Alonso’s team-mate Nelson Piquet took fourth while Williams driver Nico Rosberg finished fifth.

Jenson Button's hopes of finishing in the points tomorrow will have been boosted by another good practice session as he finished sixth fastest.

The Honda driver, who has three points so far this season, finished with a best lap time of 1:45.409.

Robert Kubica of BMW Sauber took seventh while Red Bull’s Mark Webber enjoyed a good practice session to finish eighth.

Toro Rosso duo Sebastian Vettel and Sebastien Bourdais finished ninth and 10th respectively.

Red Bull’s David Coulthard managed just six laps after suffering technical problems early on and he finished a lowly 18th fastest.

There was frustration for defending world champion Kimi Raikkonen, however, as the Ferrari driver saw his practice brought to an end when he failed to return to the track after coming off at Turn Seven with 15 minutes remaining.

Hamilton had come out on top in the drivers’ first taste of the floodlit circuit yesterday when he posted the quickest time in the first session of free practice.

The 23-year-old had looked on course to do the same in the second session only for Alonso to produce a superb last lap and set the fastest time shortly before the end.

Today, Hamilton took over 30 minutes before he recorded his first timed lap that saw him go second fastest behind Piquet.

Massa then topped the timesheet but only for a brief second as Hamilton dislodged the Brazilian with a time of 1:45.119.

But then Alonso once again took charge as he clocked the quickest time late on to give his qualifying hopes a boost.

Aside from Raikkonen, Force India driver Giancarlo Fisichella was the only other driver to have his session ended prematurely.

The Italian’s car launched into the air when coming over a high curb at Turn 10 before crashing into the barrier.