F1 Monaco Grand Prix 2010, Thursday Practice Wrap Up: Alonso is the Fastest !

A scenic backdrop of the Grand Prix Historique

Monaco is unique on the Formula 1 calendar. Unique for many reasons of course. A Tunnel as part of the circuit. The original street circuit. One of the original circuits on the first F1 calendar in 1950. Yes, that’s another thing to celebrate as F1 officially turns 60 today. (May 13^th, 1950 was when the first race of F1 was held in Silverstone, England).

Getting back to Monaco… as I said is also unique because the free practice sessions take place on Thursdays, as opposed to all other race weekends which begin on Fridays. The reason why it takes place on Thursdays is because the streets need to be opened for the public (who live there) to use on Friday as it is market day, and the numerous people who get into the principality to be part of the occasion!

An Alonso blitz on Thursday in Monaco

So, as the engines roared today and deafened the people and woke the wealthy rich billionaires in their yachts’, two clean sessions took place in the sunshine. A dry track meant the teams went out and went about their business smoothly. No incidents forced the red flags out (something that would happen very quickly here).

The highlight of both the sessions was that the top 6-8 were well with 0.5 seconds of the chart topper – Fernando Alonso. Yes, the Spanish wizard pranced his horse home in top spot in both the sessions. He was closely followed by Vettel in Round 1 and by Rosberg in round 2. Massa brought the other Ferrari in 5^th and 4th respectively. Michael Schumacher wasn’t too far behind just 0.25 seconds behind in the second session, showing Mercedes GP’s good prowess. Adrian Sutil was consistent as ever finishing in 8^th position in the second session although he was a good 0.7 seconds behind.

McLaren Mercedes on the other hand seemed a bit off pace consistently coming in the lower half of the top 10. We had told you that McLaren have, in the past studded diamonds on the car and steering for the GP. Once again, this weekend McLaren have encrusted their steering wheels with specially cut and crafted Diamonds by Steinmetz, highlighting their years of glory. This didn’t seem to help their times too much, though. And to top that, Button was fined for speeding in the pit lane during the session! (A paltry sum of Euro 800 isn’t much of a fine, though!).

The Casino lures Hamilton - Hopefully after the race

The other Indian representative, Karun Chandhok swapped his last position in the first session for P23 in the second session just outclassing his team mate by a whopping 2 seconds. He was still 5 seconds behind the leaders but at least he’s showing who the bigger man is in HRT! As Thursday ended, a few drops of rain did fall but nothing to create chaos. The majority of drivers do hope that qualifying will not be a chaotic and sloppy, wet affair, especially as the number of cars that will be on track will be more than in recent years. Let’s hope that for the front runners’ sake, the slower guys keep a good eye on their mirrors.

F1 Monaco Grand Prix Practice 2 Timing Sheet

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:14.904
2.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:15.013	0.109
3.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:15.099	0.195
4.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:15.120	0.216
5.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:15.143	0.239
6.	Robert Kubica	Renault	1:15.192	0.288
7.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.249	0.345
8.	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:15.460	0.556
9.	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.619	0.715
10.	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:15.620	0.716
11.	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:15.746	0.842
12.	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:16.276	1.372
13.	Nico Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:16.348	1.444
14.	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:16.522	1.618
15.	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	1:16.528	1.624
16.	Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber-Ferrari	1:16.599	1.695
17.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:16.818	1.914
18.	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:17.023	2.119
19.	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	1:18.184	3.280
20.	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	1:18.478	3.574
21.	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1:18.667	3.763
22.	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:18.721	3.817
23.	Karun Chandhok	HRT-Cosworth	1:20.313	5.409
24.	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	1:22.148	7.244

Formula 1 Monaco GP Practice 1 Timing Sheet

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:15.927
2.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:16.000	0.073
3.	Robert Kubica	Renault	1:16.016	0.089
4.	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:16.382	0.455
5.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:16.517	0.590
6.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:16.589	0.662
7.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:16.647	0.720
8.	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:16.692	0.765
9.	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:16.805	0.878
10.	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:16.857	0.930
11.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:17.149	1.222
12.	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:17.331	1.404
13.	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	1:17.704	1.777
14.	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:17.718	1.791
15.	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:17.991	2.064
16.	Nico Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:18.397	2.470
17.	Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber-Ferrari	1:18.434	2.507
18.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:18.547	2.620
19.	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:19.527	3.600
20.	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	1:19.606	3.679
21.	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1:19.902	3.975
22.	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	1:20.566	4.639
23.	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	1:21.688	5.761
24.	Karun Chandhok	HRT-Cosworth	1:21.853	5.926