A special helmet seemed to help Alonso on the streets of Monaco
Fernando Alonso was the fastest driver on the super-soft tyres this afternoon in Monaco second practice.
A 1.15.123 was more than one and a half seconds faster than Vettel’s fastest attempt in TP1. The reigning world champion was half a second away from the Ferrari in 5th.
Lewis Hamilton was 2nd, while Nico Rosberg was again 3rd for Mercedes.
Michael Schumacher was able to join the session after his crash earlier today, and finished 7th. HRT driver Vitantonio Liuzzi was less lucky though, sitting out the entire session after slamming his car into the barriers in TP1.
Mark Webber was 1.5 seconds off the pace in 8th, having missed first practice due to a gearbox issue. Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov were 10th and 11th, the latter knocking off his front wing at the end of the tunnel near the end of the session.
Pastor Maldonado was unable to continue his impressive form from earlier, and was 15th. Paul di Resta was again slower than two drivers from the bottom 3, finishing 20th. However, this time the Force India suffered from a loss of drive 35 minutes into the session.
Times from TP2:
1. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1.15.123 42
2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1.15.228 0.105 33
3. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1.15.321 0.198 44
4. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1.15.448 0.325 38
5. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1.15.667 0.544 46
6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1.15.781 0.658 45
7. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1.16.356 1.233 33
8. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1.16.642 1.519 42
9. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1.17.101 1.978 46
10. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1.17.126 2.003 38
11. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1.17.337 2.214 35
12. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1.17.541 2.418 47
13. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1.17.570 2.447 39
14. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1.17.581 2.458 32
15. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1.17.633 2.510 49
16. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1.17.706 2.583 37
17. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1.17.789 2.666 43
18. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1.18.266 3.143 50
19. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1.18.490 3.367 39
20. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1.19.053 3.930 15
21. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1.19.185 4.062 40
22. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1.19.338 4.215 35
23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1.22.066 6.943 33
Sebastian Vettel just came out on top in Monaco Thursday practice 1, in a spirited end to the session which saw 3 drivers lead within a matter of minutes.
It could have been 4 drivers, but Lewis Hamilton was held up on his final run, after setting the fastest sector 1 time of the day.
Vettel pipped Fernando Alonso by one tenth, while Nico Rosberg was 3rd after briefly leading. Felipe Massa was 4th, while the McLarens were 5th and 6th.
As expected, Pastor Maldonado impressed in 7th, having good experience of the Monaco street circuit. Michael Schumacher was more than 1.5 seconds off his teammate in 10th place.
Daniel Ricciardo in, 14th, came within 2 tenths of Sebastien Buemi. The Saubers were 15th and 16th, while the Lotus drivers finished 17th and 18th.
Despite setting 32 laps, Paul di Resta was massively off the pace in 19th position, only 2 tenths ahead of the Virgins. While Narain Karthikeyan got 37 laps under his belt, Vitantonio Liuzzi crashed exiting the tunnel.
He, along with Mark Webber, only set 3 laps each. The Red Bull driver failed to set a fast lap, appearing to be stuck in gear as he cruised around the circuit.
The following is a video of Schumacher’s crash:
As an afterthought, it seems appropiate to mention what happened in GP2 qualifying today. While many F1 drivers have been concerned about the use of DRS around this track, the feeder series had more fundamental problems:
Times from TP1:
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1.16.619 25
2. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1.16.732 0.113 24
3. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1.17.139 0.520 20
4. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1.17.316 0.697 24
5. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1.17.350 0.731 23
6. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1.17.534 0.915 24
7. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1.18.527 1.908 30
8. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1.18.578 1.959 24
9. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1.18.733 2.114 16
10. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1.18.805 2.186 14
11. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1.18.928 2.309 19
12. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1.19.234 2.615 24
13. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1.19.395 2.776 24
14. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1.19.463 2.844 25
15. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1.19.768 3.149 25
16. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1.19.792 3.173 26
17. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1.20.083 3.464 23
18. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1.21.116 4.497 27
19. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1.21.548 4.929 32
20. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1.21.758 5.139 31
21. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1.21.815 5.196 17
22. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1.22.840 6.221 13
23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1.23.885 7.266 37
24. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault N/A 3
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