Felipe Massa

Massa lapped the dusty track in 1m25.706s 18 minutes before the end of the session to claim the top spot from champion Sebastian Vettel by just 0.088s, whose Red Bull had been quickest for the majority of the afternoon and was not trying to go faster at the end.

His Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso was third, 0.224 seconds behind Massa.

Lewis Hamilton, who will go into qualifying for a three-place grid penalty for disregarding yellow flags earlier today, was fourth quickest in the best of the McLarens, with his teammate Jenson Button sixth behind Mark Webber's Red Bull.

D'Ambrosio, with40 minutes remaining, lost control of his Virgin racer, slid across the track and crashed heavily into the barriers. Significant damage to the rear right of the car and red flags. D'Ambrosio was okay.

The action resumed five minutes later with everyone but D'Ambrosio putting in the laps. Adrian Sutil improved to seventh place ahead of Senna, Paul di Resta and Buemi. Kamui Kobayashi was the latest to run off the track and bump over the grass. Alonso put in two fastest sectors to take second place, 0.422s behind Vettel. But while Alonso could not do it, Massa could, overhauling Vettel with a 1:25.706.

Schumacher and Sutil almost crashed into Vettel as the German exited the pits. This is something that will need to be looked into as this is not the first time this session that has almost happened.

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