Schumacher and Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello languished behind the majority of the frontrunning Michelin-shod teams for much of the session, but with 10 minutes to go, and perhaps on Bridgestone's 'super-soft' Monaco special tyre, Schumacher set his blinding lap, backed up by third fastest Rubens on 1m15.319s.

The leading non-Ferrari was second placed Anthony Davidson, the BAR test driver lapping in 1m15.141s and escaping a straight-on moment at Sainte Devote. Jarno Trulli was fourth fastest, his Renault just pipping the McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen.BAR duo Jenson Button and Takuma Sato were next up, closely followed by Toyota tester Ricardo Zonta and Renault's Fernando Alonso. Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams) was tenth fastest, ahead of David Coulthard (McLaren) and Ralf Schumacher, who required an engine change for his Williams-BMW between the sessions today.

His woes are nothing compared to Jaguar's, however. With Mark Webber out after his fire in the morning session, Bjorn Wirdheim completed only two laps before crashing out at Tabac. The team's remaining driver, Christian Klien, managed 15 laps before he shunted at Massenet, leaving the team with not much else to do but contemplate the repair effort…