But it would be the Ferrari pair of Barrichello and Michael Schumacher who would fill the top positions. Rubens would set his quickest time in the dying moments of the session. He would finish only eight hundredths faster than Michael Schumacher, who came back from his minor handling problems of Thursday to set strong pace ahead of qualifying later today.

In third was Juan Pablo but he was 1.1 seconds off Barrichello’s time. For the Renault F1 team Monaco is allowing both drivers to perform well. Their drivers would finish fourth and fifth led by Jarno Trulli. They certainly looked like they have the speed to do well in qualifying.

Behind Ralf Schumacher came the McLaren's of Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard. Arrows driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen was ninth, ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella, Nick Heidfeld, and Olivier Panis.

Mika Salo, who will start his 100th Grand Prix tomorrow, was thirteenth in the first Toyota, ahead of Takuma Sato, and Alan McNish in the other Toyota. McNish was to drop way down the order after his encouraging second place on Thursday.

Jacques Villeneuve in the BAR Honda was sixteenth, followed by Felipe Massa, Eddie Irvine, Enrique Bernoldi, and Mark Webber, who was to go off the circuit but did not hit the barriers. Jaguar's Pedro de la Rosa was twenty first followed by Alex Yoong.