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Alonso tops final practice in Monaco

Renault's Fernando Alonso set the fastest time of the weekend so far in the dying moments of the final free practice session in Monaco on Saturday morning as the top seven runners were covered by less than 0.3 seconds

In a frantic and closely-fought hour, the 2005 and '06 world champion eclipsed this year's points leader Jenson Button by just 0.069s with his 1m15.233s, while Heikki Kovalainen's final effort of the session put a McLaren third in the order.

Rubens Barrichello was fourth in the second Brawn ahead of the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen. Lewis Hamilton was seventh, just 0.225s behind Alonso.

Williams driver Nico Rosberg was ninth, sandwiched between Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

The Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock were the early pace-setters in the session, but only until Hamilton got into his stride with quarter of an hour gone.

The world champion then held sway for a large portion of the session despite stiff opposition in the first 20 minutes from Alonso and Rosberg, as the McLaren driver reeled off a sequence of five consecutive flying laps - only one of which was not an improvement when he encountered Robert Kubica's slow BMW at the chicane.

Hamilton's 1m15.622 was good enough to keep him comfortably at the top of times until the teams began switching to the super-soft Bridgestones in the final 20 minutes.

But even then however, it was Hamilton that was the first to improve on his own mark with a 1m15.389s. Though on his next lap he was forced to pit after damaging his front wing against the wall.

Behind him the Ferraris of Raikkonen and Massa engaged in a battle for second with Barrichello. And eventually, with 12 minutes to go, Ferrari's 2007 world champion finally moved ahead of Hamilton with a lap of 1m15.382s - just 0.007s ahead of the Briton.

Button meanwhile had been quietly working through his programme until he too bolted on a set of the green-rimmed option tyres and suddenly the Brawn was the fastest car on the track, outpacing the Ferrari by 0.149s to go top.

But the inevitable flurry of activity in the final minutes changed the order again and it was in those final frantic minutes, as frontrunner after frontrunner encountered the inevitable traffic problems, that Alonso emerged fastest with a 1m15.164s.

After three sessions there has still to be any significant incidents to report, with Giancarlo Fisichella the only spinner when the Force India gyrated harmlessly at the Nouvelle Chicane.

                    
Pos  Driver       Team                       Time               Laps
 1.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:15.164           24
 2.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:15.233  + 0.069  29
 3.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:15.278  + 0.114  24
 4.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:15.286  + 0.122  26
 5.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:15.293  + 0.129  23
 6.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:15.382  + 0.218  25
 7.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:15.389  + 0.225  23
 8.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:15.722  + 0.558  23
 9.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:15.758  + 0.594  23
10.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:15.985  + 0.821  24
11.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:16.103  + 0.939  22
12.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:16.228  + 1.064  20
13.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:16.301  + 1.137  23
14.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:16.317  + 1.153  29
15.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:16.382  + 1.218  27
16.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:16.432  + 1.268  22
17.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:16.527  + 1.363  29
18.  Kubica       BMW Sauber            (B)  1:16.599  + 1.435  26
19.  Heidfeld     BMW Sauber            (B)  1:16.661  + 1.497  22
20.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:16.810  + 1.646  26

All timing unofficial

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