Massa fastest as Hamilton crashes out

The Brazilian ended the afternoon almost one second quicker than Raikkonen, having lapped in 1:31.420 in the final seconds.

McLaren finished third and fourth, but Lewis Hamilton ended the afternoon in the barriers.

The Briton lost control of his car on the exit of Turn 7 and spun across the track, hitting the opposite barriers side-on and causing heavy damage to the right-hand side of the car. Hamilton was unharmed in the incident.

Raikkonen and Hamilton swapped the top spot between them in the early stages, before Massa took control with a 1:32.722 lap, 0.127 seconds quicker than Hamilton's previous best.

Bar a few minutes when Raikkonen edged ahead with his final run, Massa remained on top for the rest of the afternoon. He improved his time to 1:32.393 on soft tyres, which Raikkonen beat by 0.066 seconds with three minutes remaining.

But Massa responded in emphatic style, going fastest by 0.907 seconds with his last lap of the day.

Heikki Kovalainen had languished near the foot of the top ten in the first half of the session, then improved to third later on. He was 0.095 seconds quicker then teammate Hamilton even before the latter's accident.

BMW's Robert Kubica finished the session in fifth place, 1.4 seconds off the pace but only 0.5 seconds behind Raikkonen.

Williams continued their strong morning form with Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima taking sixth and eighth respectively, split by Red Bull driver David Coulthard.

Sebastien Bourdais was as high as second for Toro Rosso early in the session. He was eventually pushed back to ninth, ahead of Renault's Nelson Piquet, who was two places ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time               Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:31.420            30
 2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:32.327  + 0.907   30
 3.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:32.752  + 1.332   30
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:32.847  + 1.427   26
 5.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:32.915  + 1.495   29
 6.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:33.022  + 1.602   34
 7.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:33.048  + 1.628   27
 8.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:33.098  + 1.678   33
 9.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:33.197  + 1.777   37
10.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:33.247  + 1.827   37
11.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:33.710  + 2.290   33
12.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:33.755  + 2.335   26
13.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:33.782  + 2.362   34
14.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:33.822  + 2.402   38
15.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:33.856  + 2.436   30
16.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:33.966  + 2.546   35
17.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:34.023  + 2.603   36
18.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:34.388  + 2.968   35
19.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:34.405  + 2.985   34
20.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:34.787  + 3.367   30
21.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:35.288  + 3.868   24
22.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:35.712  + 4.292   25