Massa fastest in FP3

The Ferrari driver was quickest for the majority of the hour, swiftly getting back on top after his early benchmark was beaten by Williams's Nico Rosberg and Brawn's Rubens Barrichello.

The Brazilian was then the first to try soft tyres with seven minutes to go - enjoying the track entirely to himself for his flying lap but was unable to improve on the time he had managed on hard rubber. Massa was not the only one to find the soft Bridgestones offered little advantage, and the times remained relatively static compared to the usual flurry of last gasp improvements.

But some drivers did find time on softs, most notably Toyota duo Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock, who jumped up to second and third, 0.039 and 0.111 seconds respectively behind Massa. Glock then spun without damage at Turn 1 having completed his quick lap.

Also leaping forward late on were Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) and Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber), who completed the top five. The Brawns of Barrichello and championship leader Jenson Button were pushed back to sixth and seventh as others gained places in the closing minutes.

Rosberg, Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen - who made a slight error at Turn 2 on his last lap - and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel filled the remaining top ten spots in another extremely close session. The entire field was blanketed by just 1.4 seconds, with only half a second covering the first ten drivers.

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time              Laps
1.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:27.983           26
2.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:28.022 + 0.039   21
3.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:28.094 + 0.111   23
4.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:28.122 + 0.139   19
5.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:28.320 + 0.337   20
6.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:28.332 + 0.349   21
7.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:28.360 + 0.377   19
8.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:28.364 + 0.381   19
9.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:28.415 + 0.432   16
10. Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:28.451 + 0.468   18
11. Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:28.503 + 0.520   15
12. Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:28.563 + 0.580   19
13. Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:28.678 + 0.695   18
14. Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:28.715 + 0.732   19
15. Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:28.738 + 0.755   19
16. Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:29.050 + 1.067   18
17. Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:29.076 + 1.093   19
18. Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:29.167 + 1.184   21
19. Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:29.261 + 1.278   15
20. Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:29.421 + 1.438   17