Heidfeld quickest in practice 3

Until the German's late lap, Ferrari had controlled the session, with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen holding first and second positions for most of the morning.

As had been the case in Melbourne, McLaren chose not to go for a low-fuel run in this session. Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen therefore ended up 11th and 16th respectively.

Hamilton had a run through the gravel at Turn 8 on his first lap, and neither driver threatened the top of the timesheets during the hour.

Raikkonen was the first of the major contenders to set a time, and his early 1:35.729 was swiftly beaten by teammate Massa, who advanced to a 1:35.513 by the end of his run.

Both improved further when they re-emerged 20 minutes later, with Massa remaining two tenths of a second ahead as he lapped in 1:35.388.

Raikkonen moved back ahead of Massa by 0.126 seconds with his last lap, both both were beaten by Heidfeld, who produced a 1:35.019 with three minutes remaining.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli took fourth, while Red Bull showed much-improved form after their difficult Friday as Mark Webber and David Coulthard took fifth and sixth places.

Nelson Piquet also continued the promise he had shown on Friday as he set the seventh-fastest time, 0.3 seconds faster than his Renault teammate Fernando Alonso, who was 12th.

The Brazilian set the fastest sector one time of all on his last lap, only to make an error in Turns 5 and 6 and back off.

Jenson Button (Honda), Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso) and Timo Glock (Toyota) completed the top ten.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time             Laps
 1.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:35.019          18
 2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:35.262 + 0.243  17
 3.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:35.388 + 0.369  17
 4.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:35.389 + 0.370  20
 5.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:35.437 + 0.418  16
 6.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:35.653 + 0.634  17
 7.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:35.768 + 0.749  15
 8.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:35.781 + 0.762  19
 9.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:35.827 + 0.808  16
10.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:35.911 + 0.892  21
11.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:35.927 + 0.908  13
12.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:36.068 + 1.049  14
13.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:36.183 + 1.164  14
14.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:36.229 + 1.210  21
15.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:36.490 + 1.471   7
16.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:36.529 + 1.510  16
17.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:36.618 + 1.599  19
18.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:36.668 + 1.649  15
19.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:36.908 + 1.889  14
20.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:36.939 + 1.920  21
21.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:37.140 + 2.121  12
22.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:37.703 + 2.684   6

All timing unofficial