Raikkonen fastest again

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The Finn had topped the timesheets during both of Friday's 90-minute runs and again showed he could be the man to beat ahead of Satuday's qualifying session at the Shanghai International Circuit.

Raikkonen's time of one minute 36.100 seconds was 0.026secs quicker than Fernando Alonso's McLaren with championship leader Lewis Hamilton third, 0.127secs off the pace, and the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa fourth as the two teams once again proved they are a cut above the rest of the field.

Raikkonen was the first of the frontrunners on track and the Ferrari driver posted a time of 1min 36.369 seconds to set the early pace.

Alonso followed but was just under half a second off the Finn's time with Lewis Hamilton third as he failed to break the 1min 37sec barrier.

However, Massa leapfrogged the McLaren pair with a lap of 1min 36.567secs to stay in touch with his team-mate.

Alonso upped the tempo with just over 20 minutes remaining as the Spaniard recorded a time of 1min 36.298 while Hamilton improved his best considerably but was still nine one hundredths of a second outside his team-mate's mark.

Alonso posted a 1min 36.126secs and again Hamilton could not match the defending world champion before Raikkonen regained his position at the head of the field with a time of 1min 36.100secs. Massa remained fourth as three tenths of a second covered the top four.

All four drivers then came out with a couple of minutes remaining but none could improve on their times, although Raikkonen's car appeared to be in trouble before making it back to the pits after completing just one additional lap.