Arrows star Heinz-Harald Frentzen put in a “last-second blast” to take the top time in this morning’s warm-up session for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Frentzen will be one to watch after he set the warm-up pace around the streets of Monaco

The German, who starts today’s race from 12th, set a 1:20.875 just as the flag fell. The time was nine hundredths quicker than countryman Michael Schumacher in his Ferrari F2002, the 33-year-old who will be lining up third on the grid this afternoon.

McLaren man David Coulthard, who drove a sensational qualifying session yesterday to take second, posted the third quickest time and completed 15 laps. With Michelin having the superior tyre this weekend, the Scotsman will be looking for a top result today.

Renault’s Jarno Trulli will be hoping to do the same even though he did not have such a good qualifying stint yesterday. This morning he was fourth fastest, followed by Kimi Raikkonen who has had a troublesome weekend, and Rubens Barrichello in the second Ferrari.

BMW-Williams man Ralf Schumacher was seventh but seemed to have some technical problems, while BAR’s Olivier Panis was eighth with a 1:22.388.

Giancarlo Fisichella, who will be looking to continue his top-notch record at Monaco today, was ninth, followed by Mika Salo, Jenson Button, and Allan McNish.

Australian talent Mark Webber finished 13th, just ahead of BAR man Jacques Villeneuve, Enrique Bernoldi, the under-fire Felipe Massa, and his team-mate Nick Heidfeld.

Pedro de la Rosa was 18th, Takuma Sato 19th, and in 20th, poleman Juan-Pablo Montoya who was running with a heavy fuel load and was content with the set-up with his car.

Eddie Irvine was 21st, followed by Alex Yoong who could only complete five laps.

Today’s race is expected to run in fine conditions, and a one-stop strategy is expected to be the preferred strategy. Michelin Competitions boss Pierre Dupasquier said his firm’s products would easily last long stints even though the compounds used this weekend are of the softer variety.

‘I don’t have the slightest worry at all about durability,’ he said. ‘Some sets of tyres have already completed about 40 laps in total this weekend and we have seen nothing to make us concerned about wear rate in the race.’