BUDAPEST, Aug 2, 2008 (AFP) - World championship leader Lewis Hamilton led the way for McLaren Mercedes in Saturday morning´s final practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The 23-year-old Englishman clocked a best time of one minute and 20.228 seconds to top the times ahead of his nearest rival in the title race, Ferrari´s Felipe Massa.

Hamilton wound up three-tenths of a second quicker than the Brazilian to boost his confidence ahead of the afternoon´s qualifying sessions.

The Briton hit the front after 25 minutes, outstripping Massa just seconds after the Brazilian had clocked a competitive time.

Massa then reclaimed top spot, but once again he was replaced quickly by Hamilton who put in his fastest lap on soft tyres at the end of the morning session.

Massa stayed on hard tyres for his final run and also hit traffic to finish second ahead of German Timo Glock of Toyota who was third.

Hamilton´s McLaren team-mate Finn Heikki Kovalainen was fourth. The McLaren team again ran with the new nose wings that they had tried on Friday.

Brazilian Nelson Piquet of Renault and German Nick Heidfeld in a BMW Sauber completed the top six ahead of the two Toro Rossos of Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais and German Sebastian Vettel, who were seventh and eighth ahead of defending champion Finn Kimi Raikkonen, who hit traffic on his last run for Ferrari, and Williams´ German Nico Rosberg.