Fernando Alonso was the man to claim the final honours with a time of 1:15.582.

The championship leader headed home a one-two finish for the Renault squad with Giancarlo Fisichella finish two tenths down in second.

Kimi Raikkonen made a late charge at his rivals times but was unable to restore McLaren’s position at the top and settled for third position.

BAR were once again the best of the rest with Takuma Sato and Jenson Button finishing in fourth and fifth respectively.

But the Brackley based squad continued to struggle to match the pace of their rivals with Sato's best effort some half second short of Alonso's benchmark.

Williams and Ferrari were also down on speed with Mark Webber, sixth, and Michael Schumacher, seventh, almost a short.

A solution to the strained relations at Sauber doesn’t look close as Jacques Villeneuve, 13th, was six tenths of his team-mate Felipe Massa's pace in 10th.

Toyota showed early promise with both Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli competing with Renault for the top position.

But as the pace dropped, so did Ralf and Trulli, eventually finishing in 11th and 12th respectively.