Sebastian Vettel finished free-practice one in Monaco at the top of the time-sheets after posting a 1:16.619 – 0.113s quicker than his closest rival, Fernando Alonso.
However, Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber will leave this session with a heavy heart as he was forced to retire from the session after severe gearbox issues.
Mixed emotions at Mercedes as Nico Rosberg went third quickest in the session whilst his team-mate and seven-time world champion, Michael Schumacher, had a bump into turn 1 on his 14th lap with 6-minutes remaining. His Mercedes suffered a bump on the right-side of the car although he is expected to be in FP2 on Thursday afternoon.
Lewis Hamilton pipped team-mate Jenson Button – who was believed to have suffered KERS problems in the session, the McLaren duo took fifth and sixth respectively – Hamilton almost 0.2s quicker than Button.
Maldonado, Sutil, Petrov and the stricken Schumacher round off the top-10 in Thursday’s first session.
A red-flag 45 minutes into the session, caused by a leaking waterpipe under the start-finish straight will surely require further attention before qualifying on Saturday. This may see further new concrete being poured onto the track.
Monaco GP Free Practice 1 Results:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 1:16.619 | 25 | |
| 02. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 1:16.732 | 0.113 | 24 |
| 03. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes GP | 1:17.139 | 0.520 | 20 |
| 04. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 1:17.316 | 0.697 | 24 |
| 05. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 1:17.350 | 0.731 | 23 |
| 06. | J. Button | McLaren | 1:17.534 | 0.915 | 24 |
| 07. | P. Maldonado | Williams | 1:18.527 | 1.908 | 30 |
| 08. | A. Sutil | Force India | 1:18.578 | 1.959 | 24 |
| 09. | V. Petrov | Renault | 1:18.733 | 2.114 | 16 |
| 10. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes GP | 1:18.805 | 2.186 | 14 |
| 11. | N. Heidfeld | Renault | 1:18.928 | 2.309 | 19 |
| 12. | S. Buemi | Toro Rosso | 1:19.234 | 2.615 | 24 |
| 13. | R. Barrichello | Williams | 1:19.395 | 2.776 | 24 |
| 14. | D. Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 1:19.463 | 2.844 | 25 |
| 15. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 1:19.768 | 3.149 | 25 |
| 16. | S. Perez | Sauber | 1:19.792 | 3.173 | 26 |
| 17. | H. Kovalainen | Lotus | 1:20.083 | 3.464 | 23 |
| 18. | J. Trulli | Lotus | 1:21.116 | 4.497 | 27 |
| 19. | P. Di Resta | Force India | 1:21.548 | 4.929 | 32 |
| 20. | J. D’Ambrosio | Virgin | 1:21.758 | 5.139 | 31 |
| 21. | T. Glock | Virgin | 1:21.815 | 5.196 | 17 |
| 22. | V. Liuzzi | HRT | 1:22.840 | 6.221 | 13 |
| 23. | N. Karthekeyan | HRT | 1:23.885 | 7.266 | 37 |
| 24. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 3 |
Discussion about this post