Massa fastest in final practice - Italy

Massa clocked a best time of 1:21.665 around the old Autodromo Nazionale, where despite resurfacing work, the drivers have called for major safety revisions.

He wound up three tenths of a second ahead of BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, with Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher third, half a second adrift.

Massa was the only driver to break the 1:22 barrier.

Robert Kubica was fourth in the second BMW, ahead of world champion Fernando Alonso in his Renault.

The conditions were slightly cooler on Saturday morning, after heavy overnight rainstorms, thunder and lightning having lit up the old park on Friday evening. The air temperature was 27°C and the track temperature was 34.

The session began in clear conditions under blue skies on a dry circuit and featured all the drivers in the early running for installation laps.

The first major incident came when McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen went off circuit at the Ascari chicane, but he recovered to rejoin the normal route on the asphalt.

In the early stages, Honda's Jenson Button, who had suffered a dismal Friday, was among the pace setters, and he led the times after 25 minutes ahead of Massa and Raikkonen.

Just before the half-hour mark, Massa clocked the fastest lap to go top of the times and arouse a cheer among the thin band of scarlet scuderia supporters around the track. There appeared to be fewer spectators than on Friday.

Massa remained top for the next half an hour ahead of Button, but Raikkonen soon recorded a lap time that put him second to the delight of the tifosi many of whom clearly believe he is heading to their team for 2007.

Several drivers were pushing harder in the second part of the session, and among those to take off-circuit excursions or miss the chicanes were Nico Rosberg (Williams), Rubens Barrichello (Honda) and Heidfeld, who had difficulties at the Variante della Roggia.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:21.665           12
 2.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:22.052 + 0.387   13
 3.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             (B)  1:22.257 + 0.592   14
 4.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:22.280 + 0.615   12
 5.  Alonso        Renault             (M)  1:22.371 + 0.706   15
 6.  Fisichella    Renault             (M)  1:22.412 + 0.747   15
 7.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:22.682 + 1.017   11
 8.  Barrichello   Honda               (M)  1:22.835 + 1.170   18
 9.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:22.915 + 1.250   11
10.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:23.081 + 1.416   11
11.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:23.244 + 1.579   17
12.  Button        Honda               (M)  1:23.295 + 1.630   15
13.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:23.334 + 1.669    8
14.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:23.467 + 1.802   15
15.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:23.536 + 1.871    9
16.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:23.599 + 1.934    8
17.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:23.659 + 1.994   20
18.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:23.777 + 2.112   20
19.  Albers        MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:24.186 + 2.521   17
20.  Monteiro      MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:24.541 + 2.876   14
21.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:24.549 + 2.884   25
22.  Yamamoto      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:24.717 + 3.052   19

All timing unofficial