Unexpectedly damp conditions, which made useful running nigh-on impossible, dominated proceedings during the third and final practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix, leaving the final timesheet somewhat jumbled.
Although title contenders Michael Schumacher and
Fernando Alonso eventually took first and second places, there were some oddities among the order as the conditions, produced by heavy overnight rain, left the drivers struggling for grip on an already green circuit.
With 'slicks' only just about usable in the final quarter of the session, times never approached those seen on Friday - when the first hint of rain was felt in the air - and Schumacher was left to lead the way on an unrepresentative 1min 40.193secs. Alonso pushed the German closest - as he hopes to do for the rest of the weekend - just 0.172secs back, but, with the weather expected to improve for both qualifying and the race, the teams will have learnt little from the hour.
Among those missing from the top order was the most successful man in Shanghai over the past two years, Kimi Raikkonen. After a spin-punctuated Friday, the Finn only had eight laps under his belt from day one, but added only two more ahead of qualifying as he twice more spun his
McLaren and failed to register a time. Raikkonen was joined at the bottom of the timesheets by
BMW Sauber protege Robert Kubica, who completed a sole installation lap before returning to the pits.
Ferrari number two
Felipe Massa was another to fall foul of the conditions, spinning his 248 F1 as he tried to explore its limits in the drying-but-still-damp later stages and restricting himself to 15th in the final order. Tailender
Sakon Yamamoto also did his part to keep times up, causing a protracted yellow flag by beaching the Super Aguri.
Jenson Button led the pursuit of the title protagonists, lapping just under four-tenths from Schumacher's time, but was closely followed by the two Toro Rossos of Tonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed, which appeared to benefit from their V10 power units against the V8s.
Mark Webber claimed sixth spot - a rarity in itself this season - but was matched by Christijan Albers, who took seventh in the best of the relivieried Spykers.
The more familiar faces of
Giancarlo Fisichella and
Pedro de la Rosa helped to fill out the top ten, ahead of David Coulthard, who proved to be the busiest man in the hour, completing 18 laps as he and the
Red Bull Racing team attempted to find the pace missing from a disappointing opening day. New team-mate Robert Doornbos was 18th, just ahead of Toyota's Ralf Schumacher.
