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Ferrari set the pace in practice 3 - Brazil

Felipe Massa gave his home city fans plenty to cheer on Saturday morning when he topped the times in final free practice for Sunday's season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix

The 25-year-old Ferrari driver clocked a quickest lap of 1:11.443 in the dying moments of the session to outpace teammate Michael Schumacher.

Jenson Button in a Honda was third fastest ahead of BMW-Sauber's Robert Kubica, while defending champion Fernando Alonso, in his Renault, was seventh fastest.

The session began in warm conditions, with sunshine breaking through the clouds, as Tiago Monteiro, in his Spyker MF1, set the first quick time. The air temperature was 20 degrees Celsius and the track temperature was 33 and rising.

Unlike Friday, the entire field was quickly out and into action with both the Ferrari and Renault teams joining the fray quickly instead of sitting indoors and waiting.

After the first run of laps, Super Aguri's Takuma Sato topped the times before Jarno Trulli in his Toyota took over as the fastest man ahead of his teammate Ralf Schumacher.

Given the changeable weather and unpredictable forecasts, it was clear that tyre choice and tyre management was likely to be a critical issue.

After 20 minutes, Michael Schumacher topped the times for the first time in his Ferrari ahead of his Maranello replacement Kimi Raikkonen in his last outing for the McLaren team.

The retiring seven-time champion remained quickest until midway through the session when his Ferrari teammate Massa clocked 1:12.948, outpacing him by one tenth of a second.

After 40 minutes, the leading order was unchanged, but Alonso had moved up to third quickest in his Renault behind the two Ferraris.

There were few incidents, but Giancarlo Fisichella and Schumacher were among those who spun and continued as they pushed hard before, with 15 minutes remaining, Schumacher trimmed his time to 1:12.304 to go top.

Almost immediately, Pedro de la Rosa clocked the second best time to split the Ferraris, but they both responded, Schumacher delivering a best lap of 1:11.925 and Massa regaining second, six tenths slower.

Williams driver Nico Rosberg then enlivened things by running off the circuit and back at Turn 7.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:11.443           17
 2.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             (B)  1:11.631 + 0.188   15
 3.  Button        Honda               (M)  1:12.306 + 0.863   15
 4.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:12.535 + 1.092   20
 5.  Fisichella    Renault             (M)  1:12.567 + 1.124   15
 6.  Barrichello   Honda               (M)  1:12.697 + 1.254   18
 7.  Alonso        Renault             (M)  1:12.721 + 1.278   14
 8.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:12.723 + 1.280   12
 9.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:12.780 + 1.337   15
10.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:13.037 + 1.594   15
11.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:13.205 + 1.762   16
12.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:13.380 + 1.937   13
13.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:13.455 + 2.012   18
14.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:13.530 + 2.087   20
15.  Doornbos      Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:13.564 + 2.121   21
16.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:13.642 + 2.199   20
17.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:13.814 + 2.371   21
18.  Monteiro      Spyker MF1-Toyota   (B)  1:13.832 + 2.389   15
19.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:13.944 + 2.501   20
20.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:14.051 + 2.608   19
21.  Albers        Spyker MF1-Toyota   (B)  1:14.108 + 2.665   19
22.  Yamamoto      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:14.875 + 3.432   21

All timing unofficial

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