Practice 3 Report - McLaren flying high

Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton ended the Saturday morning session in Monza well ahead of the opposition with the Spaniard a tenth faster than the Briton. The pair were four-tenths ahead of Felipe Massa's Ferrari while Kimi Raikkonen's session neded in the middle of the session with a sizeable crash when his Ferrari snapped to the left under braking for the Ascari Chicane at around 150mph. The car went into the wall and slid on into the tyre barrier. The Finn was unhurt but the car was seriously damaged and it is hard to imagine that the car will be competitive in qualifying. With Raikkonen out of the way the fourth and fifth places in the session went to Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica. They were followed by the two Williams-Toyotas with Alexander Wurz for once right up with Nico Rosberg. Jrano Trulli was right behind them with his factory Toyota ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in the fastest of the Renaults ahead of Mark Webber, Jenson Button in the best of the Hondas, Rubens Barrichello, a surprisingly quick Sebastian Vettel, Giancarlo Fisichella, Anthony Davidson, Takuma Sato, David Coulthard and a lacklustre Ralf Schumacher.

Tonio Liuzzi was still catching up after his troubled Friday but he was still ahead of Raikkonen and the two Spykers of Sakon Yamamoto and Adrian Sutil.

The stage is set for fun and games this afternoon but if Ferrari is going to get up at the front, it is going to take a little of the team's traditional Monza magic.