A difficult session on a dirty track saw anumbered of yellow flag incidents, the main one belonging to Alonso, who put his car into the P1 slot and then the barriers, causing major damage to the right side of his F10.
His departure from the session opened the door for others to step up with Kubica ending Practice Three with a 1:14.806, just 0.046s quicker than Felipe Massa.
Third place went to Mark Webber in a session that saw the top five separated by less than a quarter of a second and the top 12 by less than a full second.
Report: The final practice for the Monaco GP began under light cloud cover with the track temperature sitting at 25'C, although there was a definite bite in the air. The first goal for Saturday's final running before qualifying is not to put the car in the barrier while the second is to get as much experience and a perfect set-up. With that in mind, the drivers set out for their installation laps before beginning the serious work of putting in the mileage and setting times.
Jaime Alguersuari set the first time of the morning, clocking a 1:19.939 before he was beaten by Michael Schumacher, the Mercedes GP driver shaving a full second off the Toro Rosso driver's time. Sebastian Vettel slotted in to third place before Alguersuari overhauled Schumacher. Early issues for Timo Gock, who can't quite figure where the track lies and which way to go! Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa moved ahead of Vettel while Alguersuari lowered the benchmark to a 1:17.529.
Vettel improved to first place but was overhauled moments later by Thursday's pace-setter Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard posting a 1:16.266. His team-mate Felipe Massa took fifth place on his first run before being dropped as Sebastien Buemi moved up to third. Massa went on to climb to second, Mark Webber P5 and Jenson Button 11th.
Yellow flags were out 20 minutes into the session as Alonso stopped by the Hotel de Paris, just before Casino Square. Heavy damage to the front right of the Spaniard's Ferrari, which lost one of its wheels. Thankfully, Robert Kubica, who was behind Alonso on the track, managed to avoid the runaway wheel. That's really bad news for Alonso as his car most probably won't reach the pits until after the session is completed due to the nature of the track. And that means his Ferrari team will have very little time in which to repair the car before qualifying.
Back to the action, Kubica took the P1 slot, 0.202s ahead of Alonso while Button improved to fourth place and his team-mate Lewis Hamilton P7. Another improvement from Kubica, who took a further two-tenths off the P1 time. Hamilton was the next to lead the way, a 1:15.821 for the 2008 World Champ.
Schumacher brought out the yellow flags as the rear end of his Merc stepped out on him. The German, though, was able to keep his car out of the barriers, put it in reverse and continued on his way. Minutes later Vitaly Petrov pulled off the exact same move, also at Mirabeau. Alonso walked down the pit lane. "I lost my car" he said, asked if it was driver error, he added: "Yeah."
Fourth incident of the session belongs to Adrian Sutil, who lost control at Casino Square, putting his car into a backward slide and slapping his rear wing against the barriers. The Force India driver returned to the pits.
Vettel climbed to second place, 0.060s off Kubica's P1 time. Hamilton went third, Rosberg fourth and Schumacher fifth. Rosberg continued lapping, taking second place, 0.012s slower than Kubica while Webber went fourth. Kobayashi did a great doughnut through Rasscasse - very nice!
Webber put an end to Kubica's reign, 0.294s up on the Renault driver with Buemi putting in another great lap to take fourth place off Hamilton. Massa has his second big incident - but like the first he just manages to avoid planting his car into the barriers at Rasscasse. Scary times for the Ferrari mechanics.
A bit of traffic in the final five minutes as everyone barring Alonso and Heikki Kovalainen, who was in his garage with a gearbox issues, took to the track. Schumacher had to back off due to a Renault in front of him, causing problems for the Red Bull behind him. Hamilton moved up to second place, Kubica first, Schumacher third.
Massa almost called a pile-up, overtaking another car only to then brake, causing those behind to all have to brake. Silly move from the Ferrari driver.
The session ended with Kubica quickest ahead of Massa, Webber, Hamilton, Vettel, Schumacher, Rosberg and Buemi.
Times
01. Kubica Renault 1:14.806 25 laps
02. Massa Ferrari 1:14.852 + 0.046 22 laps
03. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:14.945 + 0.139 24 laps
04. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.038 + 0.232 24 laps
05. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:15.046 + 0.240 25 laps
06. Schumacher Mercedes 1:15.236 + 0.430 21 laps
07. Rosberg Mercedes 1:15.252 + 0.446 20 laps
08. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:15.537 + 0.731 21 laps
09. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:15.659 + 0.853 13 laps
10. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.682 + 0.876 22 laps
11. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:15.691 + 0.885 19 laps
12. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:15.769 + 0.963 26 laps
13. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:16.164 + 1.358 24 laps
14. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:16.232 + 1.426 21 laps
15. Petrov Renault 1:16.240 + 1.434 26 laps
16. Alonso Ferrari 1:16.266 + 1.460 6 laps
17. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:16.644 + 1.838 25 laps
18. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:16.696 + 1.890 22 laps
19. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:17.782 + 2.976 18 laps
20. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:17.865 + 3.059 26 laps
21. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:18.063 + 3.257 24 laps
22. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:19.720 + 4.914 25 laps
23. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:19.781 + 4.975 21 laps
24. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 3 laps
Source: Planet-F1
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