Practice 3 Report - Alonso tops FP3 in Monaco

Fernando Alonso (1:14.433) set the quickest lap in the final session of practice for the Monaco Grand Prix, which was twice interrupted by red flags.

The first came 10 minutes into the session when Nico Rosberg lost the rear of his Mercedes under braking on the bumps out of the tunnel and was fortunate to avoid a heavier impact into the barrier at the chicane. The team now has to assess whether it is possible to get the car repaired and Rosberg out for qualifying, or whether he will be faced with starting from the back of the grid, a fate which befell Alonso last year.

The second red flag was six minutes before the end of the hour-long session as Tonio Liuzzi ran wide and clouted the barrier on the exit of Ste Devote, doing serious damage to his Hispania.

It meant that with the session resuming with only two minutes to go, few drivers got a meaningful run on the supersoft tyre at the end of the session. Second quickest overall was Jenson Button (1:14.996), from Felipe Massa's Ferrari (1:15.024).

The Red Bulls finished the session with Sebastian Vettel fourth (1:15.245) and Mark Webber seventh (1:15.529) but it is reasonable to expect the pair to be right in the pole position battle. Red Bull spent most of the session on the soft rather than supersoft tyre, as they appeared to collect race data, only deploying DRS on the front straight, where it will be used in the race.

Splitting the two RB7s were Michael Schumacher's Mercedes (1:15.310) and Lewis Hamilton's McLaren (1:15.386), with the Toro Rossos of Jaime Alguersuari (1:16.617) and Sebastian Buemi (1:16.736) and Sergio Perez's Sauber (1:16.821) completing the top 10.