Alonso leads rain-hit third day

Overnight rain showers and big storms throughout the morning meant that there was little running before lunchtime.

The sunshine finally broke through early in the afternoon, though, eventually fully drying the track to allow just over two hours of dry running late on.

Alonso's best time of 1:23.490 was almost one second faster than BMW's Robert Kubica, who stopped on track with a mechanical problem in the final hour, with David Coulthard third quickest.

Felipe Massa ended up fourth for Ferrari, but his day ended on a low note when his car stopped in the pits just short of the garage right at the end of the day.

Vitantonio Liuzzi showed some strong form from Scuderia Toro Rosso to set the fifth best time, ahead of Jenson Button's Honda, Nico Rosberg's Williams and Giancarlo Fisichella in the Renault.

Sakon Yamamoto continued to put valuable mileage on Spyker's new B-spec car, but brought the red flags out twice when he stopped at 3pm and 4.30pm.

The wet weather means that a number of teams will stay at Monza for another day to try and maximize their dry running ahead of next week's Italian Grand Prix.

Pos  Driver        Car                      Time      Laps
 1.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:23.490   51
 2.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber          (B)  1:24.413   48
 3.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:24.453   52
 4.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:24.525   49
 5.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:24.768   40
 6.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:24.918   61
 7.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:24.983   45
 8.  Fisichella    Renault             (B)  1:25.069   71
 9.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:26.175   72
10.  Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari      (B)  1:26.384   72
11.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:35.106   47