Kubica quickest as Alonso crashes in FP3

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Robert Kubica was quickest for Renault in practice at Monaco

Robert Kubica continued to show impressive pace around the streets of Monte-Carlo, setting the fastest time in the last practice session before qualifying.

But Fernando Alonso’s run of fastest times in practice came to an end when he crashed at Massenet on his sixth lap.

Alonso had set the fastest time of the session up to that point but lost control of his F10 at the top of the hill and hit the barriers hard, damaging the right-hand side of the car. His mechanics face a race against time to get his car ready for qualifying.

He was one of several drivers to hit trouble in qualifying including Timo Glock, who parked his Virgin at the Nouvelle Chicane without having completed a flying lap.

Felipe Massa had two near-misses during the session, narrowly avoiding contact with the barriers at the Grand Hotel hairpin and the swimming pool complex.

Both Michael Schumacher and Vitaly Petrov straight-lined the entry to Mirabeau and had to reverse their cars back onto the track.

And Adrian Sutil spun his Force India into the barriers at Sainte Devote, but escaped with only minor damage to the left-rear endplate on his car.

With Alonso unable to improve, Kubica found a decent gap in the traffic towards the end of the session and, despite catching two cars at the end of his lap, set a time four tenths of a second faster than anything that had gone so far.

Massa took the second fastest time four hundredths of a second slower than Kubica, but by slowing at the final corner before his lap left a train of cars in his wake.

The Red Bulls did not have the performance advantage they displayed at Barcelona, taking the third and fifth fastest times.

Lewis Hamilton was fourth but team mate Jenson Button could only manage tenth, and said on his car’s radio he wasn’t happy with his set-up.

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapLaps
111Robert KubicaRenault1’14.80626
27Felipe MassaFerrari1’14.8520.04622
36Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’14.9450.13925
42Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’15.0380.23225
55Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’15.0460.2426
63Michael SchumacherMercedes1’15.2360.4322
74Nico RosbergMercedes1’15.2520.44620
816Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’15.5370.73122
914Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’15.6590.85314
101Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’15.6820.87622
1115Vitantonio LiuzziForce India-Mercedes1’15.6910.88519
1217Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’15.7690.96327
1310Nico HulkenbergWilliams-Cosworth1’16.1641.35824
149Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’16.2321.42621
1512Vitaly PetrovRenault1’16.2401.43427
168Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’16.2661.466
1723Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’16.6441.83826
1822Pedro de la RosaSauber-Ferrari1’16.6961.8923
1919Heikki KovalainenLotus-Cosworth1’17.7822.97618
2018Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth1’17.8693.06326
2125Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth1’18.0633.25725
2221Bruno SennaHRT-Cosworth1’19.7204.91425
2320Karun ChandhokHRT-Cosworth1’19.7814.97521
2424Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth3

Overall practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Total laps
1Robert KubicaRenault1’16.0161’15.1921’14.80693
2Felipe MassaFerrari1’16.5171’15.1201’14.85297
3Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’15.9271’14.9041’16.26674
4Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’16.3821’15.6201’14.94578
5Nico RosbergMercedes1’17.1491’15.0131’15.25275
6Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’16.6471’15.2491’15.03889
7Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’16.0001’15.0991’15.046101
8Michael SchumacherMercedes1’16.5891’15.1431’15.23681
9Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’16.8051’15.4601’15.65979
10Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’16.8571’16.2761’15.53799
11Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’16.6921’15.6191’15.68290
12Vitantonio LiuzziForce India-Mercedes1’17.7041’16.5281’15.69188
13Vitaly PetrovRenault1’17.7181’15.7461’16.240110
14Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’17.9911’17.0231’15.76992
15Nico HulkenbergWilliams-Cosworth1’18.3971’16.3481’16.164111
16Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’17.3311’16.5221’16.23287
17Pedro de la RosaSauber-Ferrari1’18.4341’16.5991’16.69697
18Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’18.5471’16.8181’16.644104
19Heikki KovalainenLotus-Cosworth1’19.6061’18.1841’17.78298
20Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth1’19.9021’18.6671’17.86970
21Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth1’20.5661’18.4781’18.06381
22Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’19.5271’18.72169
23Bruno SennaHRT-Cosworth1’21.6881’22.1481’19.72064
24Karun ChandhokHRT-Cosworth1’21.8531’20.3131’19.78163

2010 Monaco Grand Prix

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    42 comments on “Kubica quickest as Alonso crashes in FP3”

    1. My pole and race win for Kubica could pay off! :)

      1. I mean prediction, obviously :).

        1. He is driving brilliantly this year. He is so good to watch around Monaco too, very scary onboard though!

    2. I hope the Ferrari will be recovered before the qualifying session.
      How much is the chance?
      Anyone an idea?

      1. no idea, however he could use his t-car, but this would mean a 10-position penalty.

        1. No T cars this year. They have to build it up

          1. really? so Italian online newspapers are totally wrong… :(

        2. No, if Alonso use t-car, he must start from Pitlane

    3. Hope Alonso did not damage his gearbox. I dont want a 5 pace grid penalty for him!

    4. Good for Kubica. The race will be between him and Alonso, it seems.

    5. alonso is going to secure d pole nd also win d race!!!!!!!……….:D

      1. if the car is prepared to qualify

        1. It’s not, BBC just said he’s not going to be in qualifying

          1. I just picked this up as well. James Cooper wrote about it here:
            http://adamcooperf1.com/2010/05/15/alonso-set-to-miss-qualifying-and-start-from-pitlane/

            Fernando Alonso will miss qualifying and start the Monaco GP from the pitlane after a huge shunt in practice, team boss Stefano Domenicali has confirmed to this blog.
            It is impossible to repair on site and the rules say a change of chassis means no qualifying and a pit lane start.

    6. I think with the possible caveat of those around the top will probably be top, mostly because of the names of the cars there driving, the amount of traffic makes these practice times rather unrepresentative.

      Then again, that’s what’ll happen in Q1, hopefull Q3 allows us a proper quali shoot out.

      Wonder what Redbull are hiding an how comprimised do you think Fernando will be, if he makes it at all.

      1. Bigbadderboom
        15th May 2010, 11:29

        I was wondering the same thing about Red Bull. But I think they are genuinly lacking their advantage this week. I still favour Alonso for the win.

        1. Now thats a big call! they’ll be lucky to have it straight on the jig before qualifying

    7. Good job Kubica! hope will be pole today and podium tomorrow.

      1. if he can keep it up, he’s a “must” for driver of the year

    8. all of the top teams are great when it comes to patching up cars in a hurry, but ferrari have their work cut out for them now. suspension components are quickly changed and calibrated, but if the gearbox is borked, oh boy.

    9. First thing you notice from the times is how evenly many of the teams drivers are matched
      RBR
      Mercedes
      Force India
      Williams
      Sauber
      HRT
      all so close and all should be congratulated incl management for how they run their teams

    10. Button was the slowest of the frontrunners. Not very good benchmark by the world champ

      1. An Button is now deprived of his teamates usefull setup, doubt Hamiltons setup will do him any good.

        Must be slightly missing Barrichello at this stage.

        1. very good call that one

      2. Well looks like there are only a certain number of flukes you are allowed per lifetime. Jenson has used all of them up over the last season and the first four races. Now he back to his original form… worst of the best.

    11. Oops I forgot Lotus

    12. I hope Webber makes it 2 wins in a row

    13. The other thing I noticed is how Schumacher backed up to ruin Webbers lap when he was not going to be on it in the following lap. And how Smedley’s call wrecked so many laps behind Massa when he backed them up. Ah the old Ferrari spirit lives! Hopefully RBR learns to be in front rather than behind that pair.

    14. Here’s hoping we don’t see Red Bull on pole…

    15. Alonso said yesterday that everyone’s so closely matched he needs a perfect saturday to get pole. Doesn’t seem perfect so far.

    16. So Pole for Pole looks actually possible..?

    17. I thought Sutil went off at the casino? I don’t know if thats your mistake or mine but I, annoyingly, missed the Alonso crash and they didnt show any replays while I was watching.

      I predicted him for pole so does anyone who saw it think they will be able to get the car ready for Q1?

      1. They will get it ready for Q1, but Alonso’s missed most of the FP running which might cost him in Quali. He’d be hoping to not hug the barriers again more than getting P1 though.. ;)

    18. According to James Allen, Alonso will have to use a new chassis, won’t participate in qualifying and will start the race from the pit lane.

      1. Really, it didn’t look anything as bad! Why would he need a new chassis? If it really is what JA says, it’ll be such a shame after the promise he’d shown on Thursday!

      2. Ouch. Thats gotta hurt.

      3. Ooooh, oh no!
        This most probably means no chance for points for Fernando. Unless there are many DNF’s tommorrow, but I don’t really see it happening in dry conditions.

        That’s a huge blow for most of us in the prediction game as well :(

      4. this should have been his race, it’s incredible how he trashed off his chances hitting the walls in a free practice.

        1. He must be praying for rain now!

    19. Alonso to start from pitlane during race

    20. It really shows, that Monaco is a driver track. Kovalainen and Trulli are pretty close to the other backmarkers, only 1 second behind De la Rosa. If Glock had some running, i expect the Virgins to be there as well.
      Good job for the HRT cars getting Brunos car running and looks like it helped, both are doing the same times now and are within 5 seconds of Kubica.

      If i could change my prediction, i would put Kubica on Pole, but i expect Vettel, Webber and Massa to do good as well. Who knows, maybe Hamilton gets a good lap in to be close as well, but i do not expect him to get pole. Lets see if Button tries a run on Mediums for a differing strategy.

    21. Mark Webber told the BBC, that they will fuel up the car and get running in Q1 until they get a time their satisfied with.

      So i expect quite a lot of cars on track doing just that, even though there is now 1 car less to worry about. It should just be all new teams out in Q1.

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