Kimi Raikkonen tops third practice - China

Kimi Raikkonen completed his domination of Shanghai practice by setting the fastest time in the final session, despite stopping on track in the closing moments.

Having been quickest in both Friday sessions, Raikkonen proceeded to hold the top spot for most of this morning's practice as well.

The Ferrari driver's first run was half a second clear of the opposition, and although his main rivals closed in during the second runs, Raikkonen remained on top by 0.026 seconds from Fernando Alonso.

None of the top four managed to improve their times on soft tyres at the end of the session, despite new fastest times being set in the first two sectors.

Raikkonen completed his lap first, but then slowed dramatically on the following lap and had to pull off the track at Turn 10.

With no one else able to improve, his position at the head of the times remained safe, but the apparent mechanical failure will be a concern with two hours to go before qualifying.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton was third fastest, 0.127 seconds slower than Raikkonen. Felipe Massa completed the top four.

Toyota showed good form during the session, with Ralf Schumacher in the top six for much of the hour and ultimately taking fifth.

Red Bull's David Coulthard moved up to sixth near the end of the hour, ahead of BMW's Robert Kubica.

Renault driver Heikki Kovalainen narrowly beat Kubica's teammate Nick Heidfeld to eighth, with Mark Webber putting the second Red Bull in 10th.

The times were typically close in the middle of the field, with less than a second covering Schumacher in fifth to Alex Wurz in 19th.

The session saw relatively little incident apart from Sebastian Vettel and Sakon Yamamoto having quick spins. Both rejoined without difficulty.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time              Laps
1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1:36.100           15
2.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:36.126 + 0.026   13
3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:36.227 + 0.127   14
4.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  1:36.405 + 0.305   14
5.  R.Schumacher  Toyota             (B)  1:36.959 + 0.859   18
6.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:36.964 + 0.864   13
7.  Kubica        BMW Sauber         (B)  1:37.024 + 0.924   23
8.  Kovalainen    Renault            (B)  1:37.106 + 1.006   14
9.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber         (B)  1:37.176 + 1.076   18
10.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:37.315 + 1.215   13
11.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:37.323 + 1.223   16
12.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:37.463 + 1.363   18
13.  Button        Honda              (B)  1:37.564 + 1.464   19
14.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  1:37.679 + 1.579   20
15.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:37.732 + 1.632   15
16.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:37.759 + 1.659   19
17.  Fisichella    Renault            (B)  1:37.791 + 1.691   17
18.  Barrichello   Honda              (B)  1:37.920 + 1.820   20
19.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:37.926 + 1.826   16
20.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:38.577 + 2.477   16
21.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:38.868 + 2.768   20
22.  Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:39.517 + 3.417   21

Source - http://www.autosport.com