BUDAPEST, Aug 1, 2008 (AFP) - World championship leader Lewis Hamilton clocked the fastest time in Friday´s practice for Sunday´s Hungarian Grand Prix, the McLaren Mercedes driver bouncing back after Ferrari had been fastest in the morning session.

The 23-year-old Englishman and his McLaren team-mate Finn Heikki Kovalainen dominated much of the afternoon´s second session, but they were split in the closing stages by Brazilian Nelson Piquet in a Renault.

Piquet´s Renault team-mate, two-times world champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso was fourth, both men opting for the ´super-soft´ high-performance tyres from Bridgestone in their final runs of the day.

Hamilton took over on top after just seven minutes into the second session and then he and Kovalainen swapped the leadership.

Both were driving cars kitted out with the team´s new nose wings, tested recently at the Jerez circuit in Spain.

Hamilton produced his best time in the closing eight minutes when he used the softer tyres to record a best lap of one minute and 20.554 seconds. It stood as the best of the session.

Kovalainen was pushed out of second place when Piquet leapt up the order shortly afterwards and then promptly spun off at Turn One.

Alonso took fourth to wind up ahead of defending world champion Finn Kimi Raikkonen and Brazilian Felipe Massa of Ferrari and the BMW Saubers of Pole Robert Kubica and German Nick Heidfeld.

Italian Jarno Trulli was ninth for Toyota and German Nico Rosberg 10th for Williams.

German Sebastian Vettel was out of luck in his Toro Rosso car. It slowed to a halt with hydraulic problems in the morning and then did much the same after only five laps in the afternoon.