Kovalainen edges out British pair

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With three minutes of the second session remaining, and with Lewis Hamilton poised to edge out Jenson Button again at the top of the standings, Kovalainen ensured it would be a McLaren one-two rather than a British one-two that led the way ahead of Sunday's race.

Appreciably, conditions for the second 90-minute period were markedly different to those in the first as outgoing champion Hamilton pipped new title-holder Button by just 0.096 seconds.

Earlier in the day, as the drivers acclimatised themselves to the £800million jewel in the Middle East that is the new Yas Marina circuit, they basked in temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius.

It was still 31 degrees when the second session began at 5pm local time, but on this occasion the following 90 minutes would be played out under a setting sun for the first time in F1 history, and ultimately floodlights as day shifted into night. That is when the splendour of the circuit came into its own.

Kovalainen led the way with a time of one minute 41.307secs, over 2.5secs quicker than Hamilton's best earlier in the day.

But that was no surprise as the 20 drivers grew accustomed to the track, culminating in the Finn ending up quicker than his McLaren team-mate by 0.197secs, with Brawn GP's Button 0.234secs down on Kovalainen.

Sebastian Vettel was fourth quickest in his Red Bull, 0.284secs behind Kovalainen.

Toyota's Kamui Kobayashi was fifth, followed by Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi and Red Bull's Mark Webber, winner in Brazil last time out.

The top 10 was completed by Brawn's Rubens Barrichello, Williams' Nico Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen in his Ferrari.