Massa masters Monza
Felipe Massa kept Ferrari on top in front of their home fans in final practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Massa and team-mate Michael Schumacher were the fastest race drivers yesterday and the Brazilian maintained that form today.
The 25-year-old, who won the last race in Turkey, set a best lap of one minute 21.665 seconds to beat BMW-Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld by 0.387secs.
Title-chasing Schumacher, who is expected to announce his retirement tomorrow, was third while Robert Kubica completed an encouraging session for BMW-Sauber with fourth.
World championship leader Fernando Alonso was again off the pace, as he was yesterday.
The Renault driver, who leads the standings by 12 points from Schumacher, could only manage fifth, 0.706secs away from Massa’s pace.
Alonso’s team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella was sixth, just ahead of McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen, who is expected to be named as a 2007 Ferrari driver tomorrow.
Jenson Button turned his first laps of the weekend after Honda’s engine dramas yesterday, claiming 12th place.
Honda tester Anthony Davidson suffered two failures on the team’s new engine in practice so Button used an older version of the powerplant today.
Scotland’s David Coulthard was 15th for Red Bull.
