Fisichella impresses in practice

Giancarlo Fisichella set the pace in final practice for the Monaco Grand Prix this morning as David Coulthard saw his chances torpedoed by old friend Jacques Villeneuve.

Fisichella became the only man to lap under one minute 14 seconds when he beat team-mate Fernando Alonso to top spot to give Renault the upper hand over title rivals McLaren.

But the session was halted early by a three-car pile up with two minutes to go.

Coulthard pulled out to overtake Ralf Schumacher’s Toyota on the run up the hill to Casino Square but the approaching Villeneuve was too late to react and slammed into the back of the Red Bull.

That pushed Coulthard’s car into Schumacher’s and left the Monaco streets littered with debris.

Coulthard’s car suffered the most damage and had to be craned away, leaving Red Bull mechanics just three hours to repair it.

Practice was not restarted, leaving Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren in third with Toyota’s Jarno Trulli fourth. Mark Webber gave Williams fifth while Ralf Schumacher was sixth and Coulthard eighth.

World champion Michael Schumacher struggled for pace and looks set for another trying weekend after ending final practice almost a second off the pace in ninth.

The session started slowly with almost 10 minutes passing before a lap time was set.

Raikkonen was the early pacesetter but team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya was unable to match the Finn and spun soon after. He lost control of his McLaren approaching the chicane and spun across the kerbs, just missing the barriers.

Montoya, who is still recovering from a shoulder injury, was able to return to the pits unscathed and continue his practice.

Champion Schumacher set the fastest lap of the weekend so far with 13 minutes gone as Raikkonen also improved to move within a 10th of a second.

Webber topped the pair of them though as the half-way point approached but Schumacher became the first man to lap under 1min 15secs before Raikkonen raised the standard substantially.

Alonso almost took the times under 1min 14secs with less than 20 minutes to go as the pace hotted up.

Christijan Albers’ session came to a premature end with 15 minutes left when his Minardi stopped on the start-finish straight. The Dutchman was lucky not to hit Vitantonio Liuzzi when he attempted to park his car at the end of the pit lane, narrowly missing the exiting Red Bull.

Practice was red-flagged with two minutes to go when Villeneuve took Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher out, leaving Fisichella on top.

The McLaren duo of Raikkonen and Montoya swapped top spot in this morning’s first session but the Finn dropped down the order as the pace increased.

Montoya’s lap time of one minute 16.197 seconds was enough to give him top spot, 0.206secs faster than Renault driver Fisichella.