Practice 2: Alonso owns day one at Monaco
13 May, 2010
Fernando Alonso was too wuick for his rivals on day one in Monaco
May.13 (YF1) The opening day of the Moanco Grand Prix weekend belonged to Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso who topped the timing screens in both sessions, scorching around Monte Carlo in 1 minute 14.904 seconds. The Spaniard set his time around the hour mark on super soft tyres.
Nico Rosberg ended the day second quickest
The afternoon session began under sunny skies but by the hour mark clouds started to spit drops of rain on proceedings.
Back where most believes he belongs was Nico Rosberg (Mercedes GP) who ended second quickest on the day with a strong time 0.109 seconds off Alonso’s pace. Of the Merc powered posse the Silver Arrows appear to have be in good form around the principality.
Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing) was third quickest, racking up 48 laps which was more than any of the top contenders.
Sebastian Vettel had a strong opening day at Monaco
The gap between Alonso and Felipe Massa (Ferrari) came down to 0.216 seconds as the Brazilian continued to struggle to match the pace of his Spanish colleague.
Michael Schumacher (Mercedes GP) was also a tad slower than his younger team mate but nevertheless ended the session fourth quickest despite a couple of hairy moments which included a near collision in the pitlane with Jenson Button’s McLaren.
Sixth on the timing screens at the end of the session was Robert Kubica (Renault) who has shown strong pace on the opening day.
Lewis Hamilton with diamond encrusted helmet powers through the streets
Lewis Hamilton was fastest of the McLaren boys in seventh, with Button in ninth. Splitting the pair was Adrian Sutil (Force India)
Remarkably the top eight from Alonso to Sutil were separated by 0.556 seconds, while just over a second covered the top 12.
Barcelona winner Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) rounded out the top ten.
Renault’s Vitaly Petrov was quickest rookie and impressively closing the gap on his more experienced team mate Kubica to half a second, when in the first session he was one and a half seconds adrift.
Rubens Barrichello powers up the hill
Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso) was 12th on the timing screens when the chequered flag ended the session, ahead of the Williams duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Rubens Barrichello.
One second down on his team mate Sutil was Vitantonio Liuzzi whose best time saw him end the session 15th quickest.
The Saubers continue to struggle with Pedro de la Rosa ahead of Kamui Kobayashi in 16th and 17th respectively. They were trailed by Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) making his first F1 visit to the principality.
Heikki Kovalainen was best of the new team drivers
Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus) was 19th quickest, managing to notch up 48 laps in the process, unlike his team mate Jarno Trulli who only managed 13 tours and ended the session 21st.
Lucas di Grassi was fastest of the two Virgin Racing drivers with 20th best time, while Timo Glock ended 22nd best in the updated VR-01.
Karun Chandhok (Hispania Racing) made amends for his short first session, which saw him end up in the barrier, by lapping the principality 36 times although a whopping 5.4 seconds off Alonso’s pace.
His team mate Bruno Senna appears to be a bad luck magnet. He had a problem filled session which saw him manage only 11 laps and way off the pace.
Chandhok’s best time in the session of 1 minute 20.313 seconds compares to 1 minute 20.476 seconds which was the best time set by Pastor Maldonado in GP2 practice.
Question must be: what are Hispania Racing doing on the Formula 1 grid?
Although Fernando Alonso ended top of the timing sheets in bothh sessions, at the front it was very close all day long.
“It will be tighter here than it was in Spain, it’s a special track — we know that,” said runaway Barcelona winner Mark Webber. “Saturday will be an exciting qualifying session for definite.”
Friday is traditionally a “rest” day at the Monaco GP – for most replace “rest” with “party”. The F1 track action resumes on Saturday morning with the one hour final free practice session and is followed by the crucial qualifying session in the afternoon.
Practice 2 – 13 May 2010
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:14.904 | 36 | |
| 2 | 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes GP | 1:15.013 | 0.109 | 40 |
| 3 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 1:15.099 | 0.195 | 48 |
| 4 | 7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:15.120 | 0.216 | 45 |
| 5 | 3 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes GP | 1:15.143 | 0.239 | 38 |
| 6 | 11 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1:15.192 | 0.288 | 39 |
| 7 | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:15.249 | 0.345 | 32 |
| 8 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1:15.460 | 0.556 | 42 |
| 9 | 1 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:15.619 | 0.715 | 38 |
| 10 | 6 | Mark Webber | RBR-Renault | 1:15.620 | 0.716 | 28 |
| 11 | 12 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1:15.746 | 0.842 | 44 |
| 12 | 16 | Sebastien Buemi | STR-Ferrari | 1:16.276 | 1.372 | 46 |
| 13 | 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 1:16.348 | 1.444 | 48 |
| 14 | 9 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1:16.522 | 1.618 | 38 |
| 15 | 15 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 1:16.528 | 1.624 | 42 |
| 16 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | BMW Sauber-Ferrari | 1:16.599 | 1.695 | 36 |
| 17 | 23 | Kamui Kobayashi | BMW Sauber-Ferrari | 1:16.818 | 1.914 | 46 |
| 18 | 17 | Jaime Alguersuari | STR-Ferrari | 1:17.023 | 2.119 | 28 |
| 19 | 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Cosworth | 1:18.184 | 3.280 | 48 |
| 20 | 25 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:18.478 | 3.574 | 38 |
| 21 | 18 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 1:18.667 | 3.763 | 13 |
| 22 | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:18.721 | 3.817 | 42 |
| 23 | 20 | Karun Chandhok | HRT-Cosworth | 1:20.313 | 5.409 | 36 |
| 24 | 21 | Bruno Senna | HRT-Cosworth | 1:22.148 | 7.244 | 11 |
Related posts:
- McLaren boss: We have 15 Monaco wins
- 06 Monaco GP results from all sessions
- Practice 1: Alonso fastest through the streets
- Blue skies and sunshine for Monaco practice
- James Rossi previews the Monaco GP
