The Briton tried the new engine cover design out for four laps prior to an early lunch caused by a rain shower, before setting his fastest time of one minute 15.483 seconds in the afternoon.
Hamilton's performance will almost certainly have been helped by further aerodynamic and suspension modifications that his team are introducing as they knuckle down for the championship fight with Ferrari.
Kimi Raikkonen ended the day second fastest overall, but was more than three tenths of a second adrift of Hamilton. Nico Rosberg was third quickest for Williams, while Adrian Sutil was an encouraging fourth quickest for Force India.
The day was marred by a number of rain showers that hampered the teams' progress over the day, although they were still able to complete a great deal of dry running.
The only red flag of the day was caused when Alexander Wurz spun off at the Mercedes Tribune corner while running on wet tyres. He had spent the day evaluating a new front wing.
Toyota were the other team trying out major updates, with new front and rear wings on their TF108 helping Kamui Kobayashi set the sixth quickest time.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:15.483 75 2. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:15.803 63 3. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:16.099 87 4. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:16.516 97 5. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:16.533 113 6. Kobayashi Toyota (B) 1:16.570 65 7. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:16.593 59 8. Piquet Renault (B) 1:16.856 111 9. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:17.361 67 10. Wurz Honda (B) 1:17.825 89 All timing unofficial
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