By Sam Cooper
May 24 2008

The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes formula one team have completed the third and final practice session for this weekends Monaco Grand Prix. Heikki Kovalainen lead the timesheets for the duration of the session, despite crashing into the barriers at the swimming pool chicane half way through the session. Teammate Lewis Hamilton was second but half a second behind.

The circuit was dry for the first thirty minutes of the session, allowing drivers to set a competitive dry time, should it be dry for Qualifying and the race, though after that, the circuit was wet and even more treacherous than normal.

McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen headed the field throughout the session, the young Fin set a best lap time of 1:16.567, half a second quicker than team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Although that glory ended when he hit the barriers on the exit of the swimming pool chicane, causing enough damage to warrant a red flag, stopping the session for three minutes.

Hamilton fared better than Heikki in the final session, regardless of him finishing behind his team-mate. Hamilton got a chance to experience the tight and twisty Monaco circuit in its even more dangerous form in the wet. Hamilton looked to take a steady start to the new and unfamiliar conditions, before getting up to speed and setting competitive lap times in the wet.

Reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen ended the session in 3rd, with his team-mate, Felipe Massa seeming to struggle in 6th place. The Ferrari’s were 0.6 and 1.1 seconds slower than the McLarens.

Nico Rosberg completed a strong practice session for the Williams team, the young German finished in 4th place, just three tenths of a second off third placed Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, something that could be very worrying for the Ferrari driver in Qualifying. His team-mate, Kazuki Nakajima, enjoyed a good session in 9th place.

BMW’s Robert Kubica completed the session without fault in 5th position, his teammate didn’t fair any better, Heidfeld had a miserable session back in 18th position, a worrying situation for the German, especially when there are rumours going about the F1 paddock of him being fired from BMW to make way for a faster driver.

Mark Webber had a good session in 7th place, with Adrian Sutil getting the award for the biggest surprise of the session, the young German finished in 8th position in the Force India. This defiantly a good sign for him and the team for the race.

Honda’s Jenson Button had a good final practice session, the 27 year old Brit finished in 10th place, sporting some extra editions to the winglets on the nosecone of the RA108. Qualifying is expected to be wet, so don’t be supprised if there is a lot of action and a lot of unusually placed drivers, not to forget a lot of action.

Times from the session are shown below