• Monaco Grand Prix - FP3

Kubica fastest as Alonso crashes

May 15, 2010 « Hamilton dismisses tyre criticism as 'rubbish' | »

Robert Kubica underlined his potential to cause an upset at this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix, by setting the fastest time in the final practice session before qualifying.

None of the front runners completed an entirely clean lap as traffic, especially in the final two corners, ruined several attempts to prise Kubica from the top spot. Felipe Massa came closest, just 0.046 off the Renault, with Mark Webber third in the Red Bull, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton fourth and Sebastian Vettel fifth in the second RB6. The top five were separated by just 0.240 seconds and are all serious contenders for pole.

One man missing from the fight was Thursday's pacesetter Fernando Alonso. A mistake at Massenet saw him clobber the barriers just 20 minutes into the session, doing untold damage to his car and his chances of taking pole. The Ferrari was craned off the track minus its right-hand front and rear tyres, giving Alonso's mechanics a tough task to get it fixed in time for qualifying.

Slightly off the pace of the leading bunch were the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. Schumacher was the fastest of the pair by 0.016 seconds, but also made several mistakes throughout the session, going straight on at Mirabeau at one point.

But he was not alone in making a mistake. Renault's Vitaly Petrov (just 15th fastest) also went off at that point and Adrian Sutil had to pit to repair his rear wing after nudging the barrier at Casino Square. Most impressive was Kamui Kobayashi, who looked destined to smack the barriers at La Rascasse but managed to catch the rear end, complete a 360-degree power slide and continue on his way.

Another man struggling, although with no obvious errors, was last year's winner Jenson Button. The championship leader complained of a serious lack of grip as he failed to remedy the set-up problems he experienced on Thursday. He finished 0.876 off the pace in tenth place and is under serious threat of not making it into Q3 on this afternoon.

Vying to take his place are a whole host of drivers, including Sebastien Buemi (eighth fastest), Sutil (ninth fastest), Tonio Liuzzi (11th fastest) and Jaime Alguersuari (12th fastest). All were within a second of Kubica's best time and comfortably ahead of the chasing pack led by the Williams of Rubens Barrichello.

However, with traffic causing major problems towards the end of the session, a well-timed lap avoiding other cars could be worth several places on the grid.

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