PARIS, Aug 1, 2008 (AFP) - Drivers championship leading Briton Lewis Hamilton said he was encouraged by his McLaren Mercedes team´s improved afternoon form after clocking the fastest time in Friday´s practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The 23-year-old Englishman, hunting a victory to complete a hat-trick of successive wins, was quickest to wind up top of the charts with a best time of one minute and 20.554 seconds at the dusty Hungaroring.

He was fourth fastest in the morning, but tried out a new aerodynamic package on his car in the afternoon session and said it supplied a big improvement in performance for him.

He said: "The track was very dusty this morning. Once again, the car felt good even though I encountered quite a lot of traffic during both sessions.

"This afternoon, I also got to try the revised aero package for the first time - it definitely seemed to make the car better balanced, which is very encouraging!

"I am enjoying myself so far and so I am looking forward to the race with a lot of confidence, but I know that we have a lot of work to do yet."

His McLaren team-mate Finn Heikki Kovalainen also had a good day´s work and finished third-fastest.

He said: "That was another positive day for us. The car started the day pretty strongly, but we were able to keep improving it throughout both sessions. This afternoon, I was able to find a particularly good balance and focused on conserving the tyres rather than going for a lap-time.

"I had a little bit of graining, but things look very promising for tomorrow."