Lewis Hamilton was pleased with his performance in the second practice session for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix as the McLaren driver edged out Felipe Massa to post the third-fastest time.

Hamilton, who leads the drivers' world championship by seven points, was fastest in the first session, clocking a time of one minute 18.910sec. But Timo Glock, the Toyota driver, clocked a time of one minute 18.383sec to finish ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso by 0.043sec with the British driver in third.

However, Hamilton was happy with his performance.

"I feel very happy with the way the day went," he said. "The car is very competitive here and that is always a good sign that we can compete for a win this weekend.

"Fuji is a place I really enjoy. It is not the easiest of tracks because it requires a good set-up to get the best from the car but I had no complaints today.

"We were immediately on the pace and found very good balance straight away. In the afternoon I did a promising longer run with no major problems and I feel confident about our pace for the weekend."

Massa finished one place behind Hamilton in the afternoon, recording a time of 1:18.491 for fourth fastest in the session, and though the Brazilian believes he could have gone quicker, he was happy with his overall performance.

"I am pleased with the first day in Japan," Massa said. "The balance of the car is very good both on the first timed lap and over a distance.

"The times are very close and maybe I could have gone a bit further up the order in the afternoon session if I had not encountered traffic on my last run on the soft tyres.

"I really want to do well this weekend and we will try to win and bring home the best result possible for the two championships."