Alonso tops final practice in Monaco

Fernando Alonso set the pace in the final free practice session ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday morning.

The Ferrari driver's 1m14.433s lap was more than half a second quicker than he managed on his way to the best time on Thursday and put him ahead of Jenson Button's McLaren by 0.563s.

Felipe Massa made it two Ferraris in the top three, despite the Brazilian going straight down the escape road at Ste Devote with 10 minutes remaining, his best time almost identical to Button's.

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel was fourth quickest, but, like his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber, used his DRS only sparingly on his best lap and barely turned a lap on super soft tyres, unlike those ahead of him.

Michael Schumacher sat at the top of the timesheets for the first half of the session, but faded to fifth by the end. The Mercedes driver still managed to outpace Lewis Hamilton's McLaren and Webber, though.

Jaime Alguersuari's session ended early after his Toro Rosso sustained a right rear puncture with 20 minutes remaining, but his best time was still good enough for eighth, ahead of his team-mate Sebastien Buemi and Sergio Perez's Sauber.

Nico Rosberg was the only driver not to set a time. The German lost control of his Mercedes under braking for the chicane after just eight minutes, his car hitting the barrier hard and bringing out the red flags.

The session was red-flagged again with just five minutes to go when Vitantonio Liuzzi crashed at the exit of Ste Devote after losing control mid-corner and sliding on to the dirty part of the track.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m14.433s            18
 2.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m14.996s  + 0.563s  17
 3.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m15.024s  + 0.591s  19
 4.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m15.245s  + 0.812s  19
 5.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m15.310s  + 0.877s  21
 6.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m15.386s  + 0.953s  14
 7.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m15.529s  + 1.096s  19
 8.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m16.617s  + 2.184s  13
 9.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m16.736s  + 2.303s  15
10.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m16.821s  + 2.388s  19
11.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m16.990s  + 2.557s  20
12.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m17.196s  + 2.763s  13
13.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Cosworth     1m17.333s  + 2.900s  17
14.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m17.403s  + 2.970s  18
15.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               1m17.779s  + 3.346s  17
16.  Nick Heidfeld       Renault               1m17.880s  + 3.447s  17
17.  Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1m18.069s  + 3.636s  17
18.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Renault         1m18.115s  + 3.682s  20
19.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1m18.580s  + 4.147s  21
20.  Jerome D'Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth       1m18.808s  + 4.375s  21
21.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Renault         1m19.259s  + 4.826s  19
22.  Tonio Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth          1m20.115s  + 5.682s  15
23.  Narain Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth          1m20.278s  + 5.845s  16
24.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes                                   3

All timing unofficial