Length: 4.192 km
Number of Laps: 73 (306.016 Km)
Best Lap: R. Barrichello- 1'10''399 (2004, Ferrari)
Record Pole: R. Barrichello - 1'10''233 (2004, Williams)
2006 Pole: M. Schumacher - 1'10''832 (Ferrari)
2006 Podium: M. Schumacher - F. Massa - G. Fisichella

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton took third, seven tenths behind his teammate, with Robert Kubica's substitute Sebastian Vettel in fourth.

Hamilton had been the first of the major contenders to set a fast laptime, but his 1:13.143 was soon beaten by Alonso, albeit by only 0.016 seconds at first.

Alonso then repeatedly improved his time to establish a six tenths of a second margin over the competition, before Heidfeld put soft tyres on and closed to within 0.047 seconds of the top spot.

Then in the final minutes, Alonso tried the softs for himself and re-asserted his authority, ending the morning 0.466 seconds clear of Heidfeld, and 0.703 seconds ahead of Hamilton, who got alarmingly close to the wall through the banked final corner as he probed the limits of the circuit on his first visit.

Vettel was half a second slower than Heidfeld in fourth.

Ferrari again appear to be slightly off the leaders' pace, with Kimi Raikkonen a second away from Alonso in fifth, and Felipe Massa only seventh.

They were split by Nico Rosberg, who leapt up the order to sixth with a late flying lap.

David Coulthard, Jenson Button and Mark Webber completed the top ten.

The session saw relatively little incident, with Adrian Sutil's spin into the gravel in the last minute the most notable error. Both Toyotas, Heidfeld and Raikkonen also made brief trips off the road without damage or significant delay.