Alonso, winner of his home race in Spain this month, led the way in the morning with a lap of 1:16.712 while Italian team mate Giancarlo Fisichella was third fastest in the morning and seventh in the afternoon.

"We did a normal programme for us today, tried to see the car's performance and balance and evaluate the tyres," said Alonso. "Everything was fine.

"We are competitive again with no big problems in the car...we should be again thinking of the podium and maybe fighting for the victory."

Ferrari's seven times champion Michael Schumacher had a mixed day, fourth in the first session and 15th in the second.

Schumacher can equal the late Brazilian Ayrton Senna's record of six Monaco wins on Sunday and had been sounding confident again after a deeply disappointing 2005 campaign.

That changed on Thursday. "I'm not trying to hide the fact that the situation is not looking that good," he said.

"At the moment we are too slow and we have to study the data to find out why. There is work to do but we have enough experience to get out of this situation."

Alonso has won three of the six races so far, with Schumacher taking two and Fisichella the other, and leads the Ferrari driver by 15 points.

The Spaniard has yet to stand on the Monaco podium after four attempts. He admits the race is not one of his favourites.