Alonso makes it two in a row in Monaco

May 13, 2010 at 2:42 pm by Keith Collantine

Fernando Alonso remains the man to beat in Monaco

Fernando Alonso topped the times in the second practice session at Monaco – just as he did in the first.

A few spots of rain towards the end of second practice and the usual traffic problems made life especially tricky for the drivers.

Michael Schumacher, Mercedes, Monte-Carlo, 2010

Monaco Grand Prix
practice in pictures

With rain forecast for the second half of the session most of the cars were on-track within minutes of practice starting.

But even when the track was completey dry the drivers struggled with the Monaco circuit. Some went straight on at Sainte Devote – including Timo Glock and Felipe Massa.

Others missed the chicane at the harbour front – something Michael Schumacher did on more than one occasion and several others copied him, bumping over the high new kerb on the inside of the corner.

Robert Kubica briefly held the top spot on the times sheets as he continued to impress in the Renault. But he was eventually beaten by the man he replaced at Renault – Fernando Alonso.

As expected, traffic proved a problem when the track was at its busiest – particularly when drivers were backing off in the final sector. Massa backed of too much on one lap, allowing Heikki Kovalainen to overtake him at the final corner. The next time around Massa had Glock’s Virgin all over the back of his Ferrari.

When the rain began to fall it was only very light but it was enough to catch a few drivers out. Jaime Alguersuari lost control of his Toro Rosso on his way down to the chicane and only an impressive feat of car control kept it out of the barriers.

Lewis Hamilton also had a moment in the McLaren, but kept his car out of the barriers at Anthony Noghes.

But it was a wasted session for Bruno Senna whose HRT is in need of repair. The team won’t have the necessary parts until they’ve been flown out by Dallara.

Several drivers got closer to Alonso’s time by the end of the session – including Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, Massa and Schumacher. But for the second session in a row Alonso was the fastest man in Monte-Carlo.

Pos.	Car	Driver	Car	Best lap		Laps
1	8	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’14.904		36
2	4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’15.013	0.109	40
3	5	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’15.099	0.195	48
4	7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1’15.120	0.216	45
5	3	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1’15.143	0.239	38
6	11	Robert Kubica	Renault	1’15.192	0.288	39
7	2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1’15.249	0.345	32
8	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1’15.460	0.556	42
9	1	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1’15.619	0.715	38
10	6	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1’15.620	0.716	28
11	12	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1’15.746	0.842	44
12	16	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’16.276	1.372	46
13	10	Nico Hülkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1’16.348	1.444	48
14	9	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1’16.522	1.618	38
15	15	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	1’16.528	1.624	42
16	22	Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber-Ferrari	1’16.599	1.695	36
17	23	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1’16.818	1.914	46
18	17	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’17.023	2.119	28
19	19	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	1’18.184	3.28	48
20	25	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	1’18.478	3.574	38
21	18	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1’18.667	3.763	13
22	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1’18.721	3.817	42
23	20	Karun Chandhok	HRT-Cosworth	1’20.313	5.409	36
24	21	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	1’22.148	7.244	11

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40 comments on Alonso makes it two in a row in Monaco

gopher said on 13th May 2010, 17:03

I know it’s only practice, but it’s discouraging to see Jaime almost a second behind his teammate Buemi. I believe he’s the best of the rookies and hope he will get a good result in Monte Carlo, where top speed is not so decisive.

- BasCB said on 14th May 2010, 7:31
  
  As i said this morning. You could really see the difference between Rookies and their more experienced teammates.
  All were over a second behind (with the exeption of Kobayashi, but maybe we must treat De la Rosa as a rookie here too). In this session the differences between rookies and their teammates went down to about 0,7 seconds as they get experience.
  
  In the case of Hulkenberg the new Williams wing was on his car in the afternoon so it helped him get in front of Baricello. Di Grassi even got between Heikki and Jarno and in front of Timo Glock who was suffering from his gearbox nog being seamless shift.
  
  Alguersuari had a moment there, where he did very good to avoid the barriers, so do not give up.
  
Jay Menon said on 14th May 2010, 2:21

Was expecting Alonso to be fast with the tyre compounds suiting the Ferrari. Hope the form carries on to Qualies tomorrow and the race of course.

Chandhouk faster then Senna again? Ok, Senna only ran 11 Laps, but the trend has been the same. Looks like he’s once again proving that GP2 isn’t a good barometer to gauge talent?

Good run by Kovi, impressive.

wasiF1 said on 14th May 2010, 8:39

Nico is back, I hope the time wasted in FP1 is not too much. Sutil & Kubica still are the dark horse if this weekend. Ferrari may win on this track for the first time since 2001, but this times are nothing compare what they will do on Saturday.

Karan said on 14th May 2010, 9:19

Yeah,agree but what about schumi.

- wasiF1 said on 14th May 2010, 15:41
  
  I think we won’t see too much from him this weekend, but point finish for sure.