Hamilton sets the pace

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Hamilton's McLaren ground to a halt as he began to exit the pit lane at the start of the 60-minute session at the Istanbul Park.

The 22-year-old's car had to be pushed back to the McLaren garage, initially by marshals before the team's mechanics came to his aid.

Hamilton, who leads the world championship by seven points from team-mate Fernando Alonso, then sat in his car for the next 17 minutes while the team tried to get to the bottom of the problem.

Yet the fault was a simple one as a connector had worked loose and needed re-attaching.

Once back on track Hamilton then scorched around the 5.338km track in a time of one minute 27.325 seconds as temperatures again soared into the mid-30s degrees celsius.

There was also a scare in the closing minute for Hamilton as he spun at one point on the circuit, but was able to recover.

The Ferrari's of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen were in close attendance, with the Brazilian just 0.041secs adrift, and his team -mate 0.181secs down.

Alonso was forced to settle for the fourth best time, but was 0.4 secs off the pace, with the Williams of Nico Rosberg and BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld fifth and sixth.

David Coulthard, whose Red Bull Racing car caught fire late in yesterday's first session, was 12th, with the Honda of Jenson Button and Anthony Davidson of Super Aguri 15th and 17th.