Massa fastest in practice 3

The Brazilian dominated the hour, ending up a tenth clear of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen, while Fernando Alonso only managed eighth.

There was no repeat of Friday's inclement weather, with a dry track and hot conditions greeting the field.

Massa set the early pace with a 1:12.653 lap, which at that stage put him four tenths of a second clear of Raikkonen and six tenths ahead of the evenly-matched McLarens.

Raikkonen responded with a 1:12.358 on his second run, but this was swiftly beaten by Massa's 1:12.136. Alonso found 0.4 seconds and improved to 1:12.817, while Hamilton did not gain on this run and was pushed right back to 15th as midfield runners improved their times.

As usual the field then switched into qualifying preparations and used supersoft tyres for their last runs, and again it was Massa who set the benchmark by lapping in 1:11.810 with four minutes to go. That was 0.132 seconds quicker than Raikkonen managed on his soft tyre flying lap moments later.

Hamilton then vaulted up the order to split the Ferraris with his soft tyre run, but Alonso's gain was much smaller, and he ended the session down in seventh place, 0.8 seconds off the pace.

Mark Webber showed strong form throughout the session and eventually took fourth for Red Bull, with Jarno Trulli bringing his Toyota up to fifth with his last run.

Rubens Barrichello also had a promising morning at his home track and spent much of the hour in the top ten before taking sixth.

BMW had a disappointing time, with Nick Heidfeld only seventh, and Robert Kubica falling to 20th after stopping on the exit of Cotovelo with a mechanical problem.

Sebastian Vettel and Vitantonio Liuzzi took an impressive ninth and 11th for Toro Rosso, sandwiching Williams' Nico Rosberg.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time              Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  1:11.810 +         22
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:11.934 + 0.124   18
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1:11.942 + 0.132   21
 4.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:12.446 + 0.636   14
 5.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  1:12.461 + 0.651   23
 6.  Barrichello   Honda              (B)  1:12.478 + 0.668   24
 7.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber         (B)  1:12.579 + 0.769   25
 8.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:12.594 + 0.784   12
 9.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:12.767 + 0.957   18
10.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:12.823 + 1.013   20
11.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:12.893 + 1.083   20
12.  Fisichella    Renault            (B)  1:12.913 + 1.103   20
13.  Button        Honda              (B)  1:13.015 + 1.205   22
14.  R.Schumacher  Toyota             (B)  1:13.046 + 1.236   23
15.  Kovalainen    Renault            (B)  1:13.090 + 1.280   20
16.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:13.117 + 1.307   12
17.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:13.299 + 1.489   16
18.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:13.331 + 1.521   16
19.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:13.474 + 1.664   17
20.  Kubica        BMW Sauber         (B)  1:13.525 + 1.715   14
21.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:13.684 + 1.874   21
22.  Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:13.872 + 2.062   21

All timing unofficial