Schumacher fastest in practice 3- China

The seven-time world champion ended up just one tenth of a second clear of defending title rival Fernando Alonso in a Renault.

Both drivers clocked their best times in the closing frantic minutes of a session run in drying overcast conditions after steady rain during the earlier part of the morning.

Briton Jenson Button was third fastest for Honda.

After Friday's dreary overcast weather, Saturday's final practice took place in similar if not slightly wetter conditions.

The track temperature was a mere 23 degrees Celsius and the air temperature 24, a rare occurrence that was sure to signal difficulties for teams hoping to run on the softer-compound tyres.

The session saw little real early action with both Alonso and Schumacher taking no meaningful part. The Spaniard did one installation lap and the German stayed in his garage.

Scott Speed topped the times for Toro Rosso in the early running, but at the half-hour mark he was overhauled by Felipe Massa in his Ferrari.

The Brazilian was soon replaced as the fastest man by David Coulthard of the Red Bull team, then Coulthard's teammate Robert Doornbos, before the Scotsman regained the top spot.

Then, with six minutes remaining and on his first timed run, Michael Schumacher outpaced the field by two seconds to establish a new mark for the morning with a lap of 1:43.048. This indicated the serious part of the session had started for the leading runners.

In the frantic activity that followed in the closing five minutes, Sakon Yamamoto of the Super Aguri team and then Kimi Raikkonen, in his McLaren Mercedes, both spun off at Turns 8 and 7 respectively.

Schumacher meanwhile worked his time down to 1:41:259 to remain ahead of McLaren's Pedro de la Rosa and Spyker-MF1's Christijan Albers. On a drying circuit, it was difficult to work out who was delivering laps of significance.

Alonso, by this time, had done six laps and seemed content with a time that left him in the leading group, even if he was 1.1 seconds off Schumacher's pace until his final effort as the chequered flag fell.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time               Laps
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             (B)  1:40.193            8
 2.  Alonso        Renault             (M)  1:40.365 + 0.172    7
 3.  Button        Honda               (M)  1:40.590 + 0.397   12
 4.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:40.795 + 0.602    9
 5.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:41.150 + 0.957   11
 6.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:41.287 + 1.094   10
 7.  Albers        Spyker MF1-Toyota   (B)  1:41.463 + 1.270   11
 8.  Fisichella    Renault             (M)  1:41.691 + 1.498    6
 9.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:41.823 + 1.630    7
10.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:41.836 + 1.643   18
11.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:42.588 + 2.395   11
12.  Monteiro      Spyker MF1-Toyota   (B)  1:42.612 + 2.419   14
13.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:43.216 + 3.023    5
14.  Barrichello   Honda               (M)  1:43.448 + 3.255    9
15.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:43.500 + 3.307   10
16.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:43.722 + 3.529   12
17.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:44.027 + 3.834   14
18.  Doornbos      Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:45.434 + 5.241   12
19.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:46.023 + 5.830   12
20.  Yamamoto      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:46.850 + 6.657   10
21.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber          (M)                      1
22.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)                      2

All timing unofficial