The track temperature rose seven degrees - from 24 to 31 Celsius - during the course of the 90-minute session, and the times got slower after the first hour and a quarter when very few significant improvements were recorded.
Hamilton lapped in 1m 21.018s, 0.241s faster than Alonso's 1m 21.259s, with Button a little further back on 1m 21.322s.
The times suggested that Red Bull really might be struggling against their main rivals, even allowing for the usual confusion over fuel loads and strategies on a Friday. Mark Webber was fourth on 1m 21.508s, with Sebastian Vettel fifth on 1m 21.549s.
The German was one of many to explore and exceed the limits in Turn Seven - Timo Glock, Nico Rosberg, Tonio Liuzzi, Sebastien Buemi, Pastor Maldonado, Fernando Alonso, Jaime Alguersuari and Lewis Hamilton all kept him company there at various times.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa just failed to break 1m 22s, with 1m 22.099s for sixth ahead of the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher on 1m 22.121s and 1m 22.440s respectively, then came the Force Indias of Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil on 1m 22.835s and 1m 22.981s, the Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez on 1m 23.030s and 1m 23.399s, Rubens Barrichello's Williams on 1m 23.679s and Nick Heidfeld's Renault on 1m 23.861s.
Pastor Maldonado trailed his Williams team mate on this occasion with 1m 24.181s, fractionally ahead of Alguersuari's Toro Rosso on 1m 24.182s. Vitaly Petrov was 17th for Renault on 1m 24.546s, with Buemi on 1m 24.878s and an on-form Jarno Trulli completing the runners in the 1m 24s with 1m 24.994s.
This time Heikki Kovalainen had to play second fiddle to his Lotus partner, recording 1m 25.447s, then there was the usual gap to the Virgins of Timo Glock (1m 26.823s) and Jerome D'Ambrosio (1m 27.2761s), as Daniel Ricciardo headed Vitantonio Liuzzi this time at HRT, 1m 27.730s to 1m 28.255s.
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