Monaco: Alonso tops final practice

Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso, fastest on Thursday, again set the pace with a lap of 1m14.433s in the final free practice session ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix today.

The Ferrari driver was more than half a second quicker than Jenson Button's McLaren.

Felipe Massa was third and championship leader Sebastian Vettel fourth but was known to be saving his sets of super soft tires.

Michael Schumacher was fastest for the first half of the session, but dropped to fifth by the end ahead of Lewis Hamilton's McLaren and Mark Webber.

Nico Rosberg was unharmed after crashing heavily, clambering out of his battered Mercedes and walking away without assistance.

Saturday's third practice ahead of the afternoon qualifying session had just begun, with most drivers on their first few installation laps, when Rosberg raced out of the tunnel, swerved to the right into a barrier and over the chicane.

The crash was spectacular but the 25-year-old German walked away from the wreckage.

The session was suspended while debris was cleared and then resumed as normal.

Rosberg must wait to see if his Mercedes can be repaired in time for qualifying.

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