Schumacher tops practice 3 - Malaysia

The seven-times world champion clocked a best time of one minute and 34.126 seconds. His lap was challenged late in the session by Renault's Fernando Alonso, who clocked a rapid 1:34.180 in the final seconds.

But the German remained the fastest man, ahead of the defending world champion and his teammate Giancarlo Fisichella.

The track temperature rose from 41 degrees Celsius to 43 degrees during the first half hour of the session, in which the air temperature remained 35 degrees. The humidity hovered around 50 degrees, a welcome improvement on previous days.

The first major incident came after only 12 minutes, when the luckless Tiago Monteiro went off the circuit at turn six in his MF1-Toyota, but without suffering any serious mishap.

For the Portuguese driver it was simply a continuation of the unfortunate weekend he appeared to be suffering, having been beset by fuel problems and back pains on Friday.

As the field settled down, Fisichella took over at the top of the timesheets in his Renault. The Italian did not stay at the top for long, however.

Soon after he had set the pace, the red Ferrari of Schumacher sped through the shade on the main straight to set the fastest time of the morning after 23 minutes of frenzied effort.

The Ferrari driver stayed on top until his brother Ralf, in his Toyota, took over as the pacesetter three minutes later.

The fastest times in the relatively cool conditions, even if it was still very hot, indicated that the cars were closer to their limits.

After Christian Klien in his Red Bull-Ferrari had set a best time of 1:34.815 to take command, with the quickest lap of the weekend at that time, Schumacher resumed what was once regarded as normal service.

In a lap of 1:34.126, he was six-tenths of a second faster, quicker still than Klien and setting standards that the rest had to match.

By this stage, with 14 minutes remaining and the sun still rising, the field was led by Schumacher followed by Klien, Kimi Raikkonen in his McLaren-Mercedes and Ralf Schumacher. David Coulthard in his Red Bull Ferrari, equipped with a new engine, was fifth.

But it did not stay like that.

After both Felipe Massa, in his Ferrari, and then Klien, in his Red Bull, slid off the track at turns 13 and 11 respectively - the Brazilian spinning into the gravel, but the Austrian steering himself just away from such trouble - Jenson Button slotted in a fast time for Honda that lifted him to second, within half a second of Schumacher's best time until Alonso''s late effort.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             (B)  1:34.126           16
 2.  Alonso        Renault             (M)  1:34.180 + 0.054   13
 3.  Fisichella    Renault             (M)  1:34.585 + 0.459   13
 4.  Button        Honda               (M)  1:34.616 + 0.490   20
 5.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:34.815 + 0.689   12
 6.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:34.854 + 0.728   10
 7.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:35.040 + 0.914    7
 8.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:35.242 + 1.116   14
 9.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:35.639 + 1.513   14
10.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:35.690 + 1.564   19
11.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:35.700 + 1.574   11
12.  Villeneuve    BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:36.144 + 2.018    9
13.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:36.505 + 2.379   13
14.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:36.549 + 2.423   15
15.  Barrichello   Honda               (M)  1:36.655 + 2.529   13
16.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:37.053 + 2.927    8
17.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:37.148 + 3.022   21
18.  Albers        MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:37.232 + 3.106   18
19.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:37.437 + 3.311   19
20.  Monteiro      MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:37.900 + 3.774   17
21.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:38.821 + 4.695   15
22.  Ide           Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:40.542 + 6.416   18

All timing unofficial