Hamilton and Button lead the way in Shanghai

Team-mate Jenson Button had set the pace in a dramatic morning session and it was Hamilton's turn to lead the way in the afternoon as he clocked a time of one minute 35.217seconds on the Shanghai International Circuit.

That left Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) once again having to settle for the second fastest time with the German 0.248secs behind Hamilton.

Reigning world champion Button was third fastest while Mercedes' Michael Schumacher and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel finished as they had in the morning in fourth and fifth respectively.

Red Bull's Mark Webber improved two places to take sixth while Force India's Adrian Sutil suggested he could be competitive once again this weekend with the seventh fastest time.

Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari claimed eighth but team-mate Sebastien Buemi crashed in bizarre fashion in the first practice session. His STR5 lost both front suspension assemblies when he braked on the long back straight which resulted in his two front wheels popping off, leaving the Swiss driver to slide into the gravel trap.

Yorkshire-based Virgin Racing's Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi completed a combined total of 101 laps.

Glock was 20th in each session with di Grassi 21st in the morning and 22nd in the afternoon.

Glock said: "We made some good progress over the course of the two sessions and generally have managed to improve the car quite a lot through the day."

He added: "There's a lot of data to go through (last night) but I'm optimistic that we can have a good weekend."

Nick Wirth, the Formula 1 newcomers' technical director, said: "We've had a positive but eventful day. Shanghai is the first circuit we've come to where we've had less than perfect track data for our simulators and along with some of the other teams we were caught out by the huge bump going into turn one.

"We had been a bit brave on our initial front ride height, which resulted in Timo's front wing hitting the ground hard, necessitating a wing change.

"However, once we'd allowed for this bump in the set-up, the rest of the day was trouble-free, and our improving reliability allowed us to try a range of tests that we haven't previously been able to do."