Last year's race winner ends day one two tenths clear of rivals in Montreal.

After last year's sterling performance, few would have bet against Lewis Hamilton being a major player when Formula One returned to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, but the Briton left little doubt that he could again be the man to beat after topping Friday free practice.

With the first 90-minute session being rendered largely meaningless by early rain and a drying track that made timing the key to the lottery, Hamilton topped an entirely dry second session to lead the field by two tenths. The McLaren driver was the only one to break into the min 15secs bracket, setting the target for the rest to aim at on Saturday.

Unlike the first session, where the majority of the benchmark times were set with the chequered flag long unfurled, Hamilton banged in his marker with fully ten minutes remaining on the clock, before allowing all-comers to take a shot at it. When no-one managed to get close, the Briton was left sitting pretty on 1min 15.752secs.

As he had been in the opening session, Robert Kubica took second spot for BMW Sauber, underlining that there would be no qualms about returning to the circuit that could easily have claimed his life twelve months ago. The Pole improved his time from 1min 17.809secs to 1min 16.023secs as a guide to just how much the conditions had improved between sessions.

Third went to Kimi Raikkonen, who had appeared on course for a similar result first time around before pitting at just the moment he needed to be on track. The world champion was just 0.07secs shy of Kubica's time, and comfortably clear of fourth-placed compatriot Heikki Kovalainen, who edged morning pacesetter Felipe Massa for the final spots at the foot of the top five after the Brazilian stopped on track with a suspected hydraulic problem in the closing stages.

Nick Heidfeld took sixth spot to underline BMW Sauber's potential - and his own return to form after a miserable Monaco - while Mark Webber repeated the seventh spot he took in the opening session, despite spinning in the best of the Red Bull entries. Nico Rosberg was the first driver to lap a second slower than Hamilton, as he headed Sebastian Vettel and Jarno Trulli at the bottom of the top ten.

Trulli was fortunate not to be overhauled by Kazuki Nakajima after a session punctuated by incidents, while twelfth-placed David Coulthard fell back from his morning eighth after a moment late in the session. The second Toyota of Timo Glock, double world champion Fernando Alonso and Renault team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr, Raikkonen, Kovalainen, Sebastien Bourdais, Rubens Barrichello and Giancarlo Fisichella all had moments that required explaining back at the pits.

Alonso's second incident left him done for the day, while Glock found the wall and damaged the TF108's suspension beyond immediate repair. Piquet also sat out a part of the session after running into brake problems, leaving him 20th and last, but in the company of Alonso, who wound up 17th, with only Jenson Button and Adrian Sutil between the R28s

Honda at least had the solace of seeing Barrichello move up to 13th overall, ahead of fellow veteran Fisichella, with Glock and Bourdais filling the gap back to Alonso.