It was an incident-filled first session as the McLaren of Fernando Alonso topped the time sheets at the opening free practice session in Monaco earlier today with team-mate Lewis Hamilton not far behind. Ferrari didn’t have a good run with Raikkonen winding up in fifth and Massa eighth.
It was Hamilton who set the early pace for the session with his first flying lap being a full 1.5 seconds faster than Alonso. Hamilton has a lot of history at the street circuit having won all three of his previous races at the track in junior formula races. Howver, on lap 14, a broken starter motor caused him to stop. A piece of debris made it’s way into the gearbox forcing the mechanics to remove the floor of the MP4-22 to fix the problem.
Chrisijan Albers in the Spyker car also had a poor session which saw his car causing a red flag situation as it came to a halt on the Tabac corner.
Massa upped the pace and put in a storming time before Hamilton responded with a lap time of 1:17.601. Things stayed this way for a while until Alonso put on a set of super-soft Bridgestone tyres, enabling him to set a time of 1:16.973, six-tenths clear of the rest of the field, a place he remained in throughout the rest of the session.
Nick Heidfeld had a minor off over the chicane but did not damage his car and clinched third spot overall, just ahead of the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella who ended his session prematurely when he touched a kerb at Sainte Devote, sending him into the barriers.
Unofficial Monaco Thursday Free Practice Times (Session 1)
1 Alonso McLaren 1:16.973
2 Hamilton McLaren 1:17.601
3 Heidfeld BMW 1:17.616
4 Fisichella Renault 1:17.758
5 Raikkonen Ferrari 1:17.918
6 Webber Red Bull 1:17.956
7 Rosberg WilliamsF1 1:18.074
8 Massa Ferrari 1:18.189
9 Kubica BMW 1:18.675
10 Barrichello Honda 1:18.676
11 Wurz WilliamsF1 1:18.869
12 Speed Toro Rosso 1:18.967
13 Coulthard Red Bull 1:19.095
14 Sato Super Aguri 1:19.203
15 Liuzzi Toro Rosso 1:19.285
16 Kovalainen Renault 1:19.321
17 Button Honda 1:19.332
18 Davidson Super Aguri 1:19.337
19 Trulli Toyota 1:19.496
20 R Schumacher Toyota 1:19.799
21 Sutil Spyker 1:21.634
22 Albers Spyker 1:23.235
