Practice 3 Report - Things start to get serious

After a day doing homework on Friday the F1 teams started to get serious on Saturday morning with tyre choices made and set-ups decided upon. And while Michael Schumacher continued to top the timesheets with a best lap of 1m23.787s, Fernando Alonso was on a much faster lap when he had to back off because of traffic and so his best lap was a second attempt and that was only three-tenths behind the Ferrari. Alonso's fastest lap had been four-tenths up in the first sector alone. With the track getting quicker all the time, the afternoon qualifying is eagerly awaited with Schumacher and Alonso looking like they are the men to beat but others still perhaps waiting to show their hands.

In the morning session Giancarlo Fisichella was third fastest ahead of Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen and Ralf Schumacher. Jenson Button was a second slower than the fastest time in seventh ahead of Jacques Villeneuve's BMW, Christian Klien's Red Bull and the Toro Rosso of Tonio Liuzzi. Rubens Barrichello was 11th fastest with Mark Webber next, Williams preferring not to go for times just yet. Nico Rosberg blotted his copybook, however, when he went off and hit the wall and damaged his car. Jarno Trulli was also well off the pace for no apparent reason while Juan Pablo Montoya did just one lap and failed to set a time with his McLaren.