Mat Coch writes:

Nico Rosberg carried on from where he left off on Thursday, setting a scintillating time to top the tables by more than half a second in a dramatic and action packed final practice session.

After a day of press and sponsor engagements yesterday, teams and drivers returned to the streets for the third practice session this morning as the weekend schedule returns to some form or normality. Monaco has always been unique; opening practice being held on a Thursday before a day off (historically because of a public holiday in the Principality) on Friday.

On Thursday Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton showed strong pace over a single lap, though the Ferrari pair of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa appeared to have the edge on longer runs. Kimi Raikkonen too looked comfortable while Red Bull seemed to struggle in comparison.

Under clear blue skies there was a rush down the pitlane when the lights turned green, most drivers heading out on to the Monaco streets to complete installation laps. In the distance clouds threatened, a strong breeze edged them ever closer to the twisty Monaco circuit. Though not a threat for practice they look poised to arrive around qualifying.

As was the case in the opening two practice sessions, Esteban Gutierrez was an early feature on tracky, becoming the first man to set a time in the Saturday morning session with a genteel 1:26.137. The Mexican was one of the few drivers to remain on track after the initial installation laps, lowering his time to 1:20.264 on his second lap as he grew in confidence.

Daniel Ricciardo was the only driver not to take to the circuit, continuing to sit in the garage seven minutes after the pitlane opened. An oil leak in the Toro Rosso prevented the car from starting initially, though the team was soon able to fix it and have him out slightly later in the session.

With the track quiet Gutierrez continued circulating, bringing his lap time down to a 1:18.499 – some four seconds off what Rosberg set on Thursday but at least faster than the GP2 drivers were setting. Indeed race pace is expected to be somewhere close to those set by the sport’s feeder series. Caterham drivers Giedo Van Der Garde and Charles Pic's opening laps of 1:21.997 and 1:22.583 respectively were in the region of those set by Sam Bird in the GP2 feature race on Friday, a race the Mercedes reserve driver dominated.

Ahead of the Caterham duo Gutierrez was still turning laps; after eight tours he'd knocked some nine seconds off his opening lap time.
Van der Garde and Pic, also still circulating, lowered their lap times to within a second of those set by Gutierrez as Ricciardo finally emerged, some twelve minutes into the sixty-minute session. Ricciardo's Toro Rosso teammate Jean-Eric Vergne was also on track, setting an initial lap of 1:21.967 on a set of the soft Pirelli tyres.

A quarter of an hour into the session all the drivers had been on track, though only half a dozen had set times as most chose to sit in the garage and tweak their set ups ahead of a qualifying simulation run later in the session.

Gutierrez was finally bumped from the top of the timing screens first by Vergne on a 1:16.946 and then Nico Hulkenberg, who demoted his Sauber teammate to third with a 1:17.211. Hulkenberg went one better on the following lap, setting a 1:16.371 to set the fastest time of the session on a set of soft compound tyres.

Both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber took to the track after twenty minutes, desperately looking for pace after a slow Thursday. The pace wasn't immediately present for Vettel, who set a 1:16.582 while Webber was some seven-tenths of a second off with a 1:17.210. Vettel was out on the supersoft tyres, while Webber ran on the softs, Red Bull running a split programme with its two drivers.

Traffic was beginning to become an issue with a number of cars circulating; Sergio Perez was delayed after the McLaren driver had set the fastest first sector of all.

Vettel however did get a clear lap, setting a 1:15.791 to go fastest on what appeared to be a qualifying simulation. It was only narrowly faster than Pastor Maldonado who set a time just seven hundredths slower in the unfancied Williams.

Williams, which is yet to score a point in 2013, had been testing alternate front wings on Thursday between Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas' cars, the pair some way down the order. Maldonado's lap was therefore an encouraging sign for the Grove team.

Red Bull however soon went better. Vettel lowered his own time by half a second while Mark Webber went second fastest with a time of 1:15.714.

With thirty-five minutes left of the session, drivers began to focus on qualifying, with Fernando Alonso attacking the Monaco street just as Romain Grosjean was wheeled back into the garage with a flat left-rear tyre.