SHANGHAI, Oct 6, 2007 (AFP) - Ferrari´s Kimi Raikkonen maintained his domination of the Chinese Grand Prix Saturday as he swept to the fastest time in final practice ahead of the penultimate qualifying session of the season.

The Finn, who was quickest in both practice sessions yesterday, clocked one minute 36.100 seconds on the 5.451-kilometre (3.4-mile) track.

But final practice ended worrying for the Finn when his car suddenly slowed with just over three minutes left and he coasted back to the pits.

Double champion Fernando Alonso was just 0.026 sec behind Raikkonen while his McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton was third quickest in his first session since being cleared of dangerous driving in last Sunday´s race in Japan.

Alonso and Raikkonen know they have to win tomorrow´s race if they are to stand a chance of denying Hamilton, 22, a place in the history books as the first rookie to win the title and the youngest champion.

The British driver leads Alonso by 12 points and Raikkonen is five points further back with just two races left of an enthralling but often controversial season on and off the track.

Hamilton, who was 0.1 sec slower than Raikkonen, was cleared to race without penalty after race stewards looked into his driving behind the safety car in Fuji and whether he helped cause an accident involving Red Bull´s Mark Webber and Toro Rosso´s Sebastian Vettel.

The stewards took into account the atrocious conditions as they announced no penalty.

Brazil´s Felipe Massa was fourth quickest in the other Ferrari, although he is already out of title contention.