Monaco GP : Williams outside top ten in FP3

After Thursday practice for the 2011 Monaco Grand Prix both AT&T Williams drivers would finish outside the top ten, with Rubens Barrichello thirteenth and Pastor Maldonado fifteenth. But the team had indicated that Thursday's practice was focused on testing new parts and looking at car setup. Now with Saturday there was the question as to whether of not the team had found the right setup. The hour long session would get underway with Kobayashi out onto the track first. He would be followed by a rush of drivers including both Renault's, both Virgin cars, and the cars from HRT. Vettel would come out early joined by both Williams drivers. The drivers would pit after their installation laps including both Pastor and Rubens.

But Schumacher would keep out and complete a flying lap setting a 1m:22.441. The last driver to leave the pit lane was Hamilton. Rosberg was also now out on the track as Schumacher set a 1m:20.175. The Mercedes driver continued to circulate the track setting a 1m:19.962. But the session would be stopped as Rosberg would have a major crash exiting the tunnel damaging all four corners of his car. He was able to get out of his car with it shown that he lost control under braking for the chicane. There was a lot of debris on the
track going from the chicane and  down the track. His car had hit the barrier on the right and shot through the chicane and hit the barrier on the left. Rosberg stood near his car for some time looking at the damage.

As the clock ticked down there was now forty minutes remaining in the session. With the re-start of the session there would be a rush of drivers coming out. For the teams the delay would have hindered their setup work for the session. The drivers started their flying laps as both Williams cars were still in their pits. As times were set Schumacher was still fastest from Buemi, Alguersuari, Glock, D'Ambrosio and Petrov. Perez was now second with a 1m:21.206 from Buemi and Kobayashi. Button was out on the track joining both Ferrari's. The times dropped as Alonso went fastest with a 1m:18.150 from Schumacher, 1m:18.566, Buemi, 1m:18.778, and Heidfeld. It was all changing rapidly as Webber would be the first Red Bull to come out. Massa was now third with 1m:18.678, as Schumacher pitted. Perez was now fastest with a 1m:18.058. Alonso was second from Petrov and Schumacher in fourth.

Button would jump to the top of the times with a 1m:17.130 as Alonso would move ahead of him with a 1m:15.924. Buemi was third from Massa and Perez, with the Sauber pitting. Pastor would be the first of the Williams to come out as Webber moved up to eighth, 1m:18.529. Kobayashi was sixth and Petrov seventh. Rubens was still in the pits with just under thirty minutes remaining. Hamilton was out on the track as Vettel moved up to third, 1m:16.467. Webber would improve to be fifth, 1m:16.991, as the early runners started to
pit. Massa was fourth, 1m:16.764, as Rubens finally took to the track. Pastor's first time was a 1m:0.639 to be nineteenth. Button would pit as Pastor moved up to seventh, 1m:18.048. Hamilton was now fifth with a 1m:16.849.

On the super soft tyre Schumacher would move up to second with a 1m:16.161, as Alonso pitted. Rubens would set a 1m:24.706 to be slowest while Pastor was now eighth. Massa was now third with a 1m:16.291 as Vettel found time to go fastest with a 1m:15.423, running on the prime tyre. Hamilton was now second with a 1m:15.693. Rubens had found time to be tenth with a 1m:18.035. It was reported that Rubens was having problems with sensors in his gearbox that had to be replaced. With twenty minutes remaining Vettel was fastest from Hamilton, Alonso, Webber, Schumacher, Massa, Button, Pastor, Buemi, Heidfeld, and Rubens in eleventh. Pastor's current time was a 1m:17.333. Webber was up to third with a 1m:15.772.Buemi would improve with a 1m:16.736 to be eighth. Rubens would improve to be tenth, 1m:17.196, moving one place ahead of Pastor.

As the session drew to a close one of the HRT cars, that of Liuzzi, would run wide and hit the barrier coming out of Ste Devote. The session would be stopped and after the track was cleared there would be a rush of drivers coming out with Perez leading. At this time Rubens and Pastor were currently in eleventh and twelfth as the session came to an end. With the drivers making runs on the supersoft tyres it would be Alonso who would finish fastest with a 1m:14.433 from Button, Massa, Vettel, Schumacher, Hamilton, Webber, Alguersuari, Buemi, and Perez in tenth. As the drivers completed their final lap Rubens and Pastor would drop to twelfth and thirteenth.

Pos  Driver	   Team		  	 Time       Laps
 1.  F Alonso      Ferrari               1m14.433s  18
 2.  J Button      McLaren-Mercedes      1m14.996s  17
 3.  F Massa       Ferrari               1m15.024s  19
 4.  S Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m15.245s  19
 5.  M Schumacher  Mercedes              1m15.310s  21
 6.  L Hamilton    McLaren-Mercedes      1m15.386s  14
 7.  M Webber      Red Bull-Renault      1m15.529s  19
 8.  J Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m16.617s  13
 9.  S Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m16.736s  15
10.  S Perez       Sauber-Ferrari        1m16.821s  19
11.  P di Resta    Force India-Mercedes  1m16.990s  20
12.  R Barrichello Williams-Cosworth     1m17.196s  13
13.  P Maldonado   Williams-Cosworth     1m17.333s  17
14.  K Kobayashi   Sauber-Ferrari        1m17.403s  18
15.  V Petrov      Renault               1m17.779s  17
16.  N Heidfeld    Renault               1m17.880s  17
17.  A Sutil       Force India-Mercedes  1m18.069s  17
18.  H Kovalainen  Lotus-Renault         1m18.115s  20
19.  T Glock       Virgin-Cosworth       1m18.580s  21
20.  J D'Ambrosio  Virgin-Cosworth       1m18.808s  21
21.  J Trulli      Lotus-Renault         1m19.259s  19
22.  T Liuzzi      HRT-Cosworth          1m20.115s  15
23.  N Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth          1m20.278s  16
24.  N Rosberg     Mercedes                         3