Practice One - Alonso sets early Monaco pace 13 May 2010
Fernando Alonso led the way as practice began on the streets of Monte Carlo on Thursday morning, and was the only man to break the 1m 16s barrier as he lapped his Ferrari in 1m 15.927s. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel came close, however, tidily stopping the clocks in 1m 16.000s. Right behind them, Robert Kubica whirled his Renault round in 1m 16.016s.
There were surprisingly few incidents as the drivers familiarised themselves to changes which include resurfacing in places and brutally high kerb extensions in the chicane and the Swimming Pool.
Mark Webber put the second Red Bull in fourth place with 1m 16.382s, but all down the field the times were very close. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was fifth with 1m 16.517s from Mercedes GP’s Michael Schumacher (1m 16.589s), the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button which had set the pace initially (1m 16.647s and 1m 16.692s respectively), Force India’s Adrian Sutil (1m 16.805s), and Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi (1m 16.857s).
Nico Rosberg failed to get into the 1m 16s, lapping the second Mercedes in 1m 17.149s, chased by Williams' Rubens Barrichello (1m 17.331s), Force India’s Vitantonio Liuzzi (1m 17.704s), Renault’s Vitaly Petrov (1m 17.718s) and Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari (1m 17.991s).
Nico Hulkenberg was 16th in the second Williams, on 1m 18.397s from BMW Sauber team mates Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi (1m 18.434s and 1m 18.547s respectively).
In the newbie stakes, Timo Glock whipped his Virgin round to 1m 19.527s to head Lotus duo Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli (1m 19.606s and 1m 19.902s respectively), with Lucas di Grassi 22nd on 1m 20.566s in the second VR-01. Bruno Senna was HRT’s quicker runner with 1m 21.688s, after Karun Chandhok had lapped his F110 in 1m 21.853s before running out of grip in Massenet and lightly tapping the barrier rear-end first after spinning.
The two other incidents involved Kobayashi, who went off at Mirabeau and later took his front wing off after getting the exit to the Swimming Pool wrong.
