Practice 3 Report - Alonso tops the timesheets

Fernando Alonso set the fastest time of the Saturday morning session in Monte Carlo witha lap that was just a fraction faster than the best achieved by World Championship leader Jenson Button in his Brawn. McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen was third fastest ahead of Rubens Barrichello and Felipe Massa. behind the Brazilian was his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton, while the top 10 was completed by Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber.

There were some disappointing performances from the Toyotas and BMWs with Timo Glock 17th, Robert Kubica 18th, Nick Heidfeld 19th and Jarno Trulli 20th.

All this meant that the midfield had some unusual faces with Adrian Sutil 12th behind Kazuki Nakajima but ahead of Sebastien Bourdais and Giancarlo Fisichella. Nelson Piquet was 15th with Sebastien Buemi 16th.