After a week of media attention surrounding his chances this weekend, Adrian Sutil topped the timesheets ahead of Saturday’s Qualifying session for the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix.
During today s rain affected third practice session, Sutil beat the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen to set the fastest time of the session, a first for a Spyker driver. In the dieing moments, on the drying Monte Carlo circuit, he edged out the Finnish driver by 0.127 seconds, setting a time of 1:36.612.
The 2007 phenomenon, Lewis Hamilton, came third for McLaren with Giancarlo Fisichella, Scott Speed and team-mate Fernando Alonso completing the top six. Sutil s team-mate, Christijan Albers, finished nineteenth after a brief off track excursion at the Grand Hotel hairpin.
It was almost halfway through the session before most drivers took to the track. Almost all teams predicted the downpour some ten-minutes into the session, turning the already damp track into a no go area.
Toyota, as ever, were among the first runners to take to the track, tiptoeing around until a dry line formed. Ralf Schumacher struggled alongside his team-mate, and despite being slower than the Italian, still managed to slide down the escape road at Sainte Devote and Mirabeau.
Other drivers fell victim to the arduous track conditions and slid off at the same corner, including the McLarens of Hamilton and Alonso, and the Red Bull of Mark Webber. Alex Wurz spun his Williams but managed to continue.
