Nico Rosberg was fastest for the second session in a row in practice for the Monaco Grand Prix.
His team mate Lewis Hamilton joined him at the top of the times making it a one-two for Mercedes. But several of their closest rivals were unable to improve their best times as the session was briefly red-flagged.
The first interruption came as Romain Grosjean understeered into the barrier at Sainte Devote. The Lotus driver said afterwards he hadn’t warmed his tyres up enough on his out lap.
The marshals quickly craned the car away but moments after the sector was declared clear the session was red-flagged. The kerb at turn 13 had begun to break up, and the debris was cleared away during a brief interruption.
The Ferrari drivers were among those who had to postpone their runs on the faster super soft tyres. Fernando Alonso was visibly pushing hard, having a near-miss with Nico Hulkenberg at Rascasse, and set the third-quickest time followed by Felipe Massa.
Mark Webber was the quickest of the two Red Bulls. Team mate Sebastian Vettel was only ninth after experiencing a KERS failure during the session.
Despite his crash, Grosjean held onto the seventh-fastest time behind team mate Kimi Raikkonen. Jenson Button was eighth, though he wasn’t able to get a clear lap in on super-soft tyres until his fifth attempt.
His McLaren team mate Sergio Perez was told to stop at the pit lane exit at one point as the team briefly thought there was a problem with his car, though he was able to continue. He ended the session 12th behind the Force Indias.
2013 Monaco Grand Prix
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- Ricciardo told Grosjean “you’re an idiot” after crash
- New video shows how barrier blocked track after Chilton-Maldonado crash
Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
23rd May 2013, 14:37
Mercedes are looking very strong and not bad at all on race pace. Interestingly though Red Bull aren’t looking very quick unlike in previous years…
tmekt (@tmekt)
23rd May 2013, 14:40
Isn’t that the case quite often though? Red Bull looking unusually slow on Fridays (or Thursdays) but still being right on the pace on Saturdays
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
23rd May 2013, 14:42
@tmekt to an extent yes, but they don’t usually “sandbag” this much. That said though, it’s only Vettel that’s far off the pace currently though: possibly related to the changes at the start of the session?
Sri Harsha (@harsha)
23rd May 2013, 14:48
No it was reported that he had KERS failure’s
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
23rd May 2013, 15:05
Thanks for that @harsha: that’d make a fair difference around Monaco.
xjr15jaaag (@xjr15jaaag)
23rd May 2013, 17:16
And he didnt use the S-Soft tyre either I think his fastest time was on the Soft (yellow) tyre
xjr15jaaag (@xjr15jaaag)
23rd May 2013, 17:18
Turns out I was wrong
Sri Harsha (@harsha)
23rd May 2013, 18:56
@xjr15jaaag
He Used Super Soft tire but due to the Traffic and Lack of KERS he doesn’t Improved his times. His Best time was still set of Softs
gdewilde (@gdewilde)
23rd May 2013, 15:26
If you look at the 5 previous races, it is clear for me that Red Bull don’t sandbag anymore on a Friday. If they have genuine front row-speed, they are usually high on the time sheets (even on a Friday). So no I don’t think they are pretending to be a bit slower than Mercedes and I believe they will not be higher than the second row (maybe even third row ==> Rosberg, Hamilton, Alonso, Massa, Grosjean, .. all look fast)
Manished
23rd May 2013, 15:10
i would be very surprised if Merc didn’t occupy the front rows.
BasCB (@bascb)
23rd May 2013, 14:40
Fascinating insights from AMuS about Williams. Seems what they ran this morning was in fact a genuine 2012 nose/FW! Apparently they put last years floor on the car in Barcelona to see where it went wrong, now they did the nose, and it seems they found that was where the problem is (see speed this morning).
Only they can’t use the FW because it flexes too much for this years tests.
melkurion (@melkurion)
23rd May 2013, 14:55
Interesting, so basicly the new nose doesn’t work with either floor, but the old nose works with both ….
DaveW (@dmw)
23rd May 2013, 15:06
Seems like they just need four steel brackets and a length of thin steel cable and they can use the wing. I’m sure there is a decent hardware store in Monaco.
Tomsk (@tomsk)
23rd May 2013, 17:37
Yes, but they’d have to pay Monaco prices… India would be better value, but that’s too long to wait!
It’s not a pretty sight with the stepped nose back again, but if they’ve cracked it, that’s a better effort than McLaren with all their resources.
At what points during the weekend is the load test applied? I mean could they qualify with the old wing, then put the new one back on during a pit stop?
bosyber (@bosyber)
23rd May 2013, 15:48
If that turns out to solve it, I guess they’ll be very sorry to not have done more systematic back-to-back tests in the pre-season @bascb
melkurion (@melkurion)
23rd May 2013, 14:41
Maldonado seems to making good in his promiss :)
But seriously: Seeing this I’m reallllyyy glad that Pirelli has soft and supersoft here. Seeing a train run behind Rosberg and Hamilton would be an even bigger borefest then last year! So here’s hoping that some alternate stopping combined with quick, free running laps will shake things up a bit !
xjr15jaaag (@xjr15jaaag)
23rd May 2013, 17:17
Last year was awesome!!!!!!!!
@melkurion
Aldoid
23rd May 2013, 15:13
Practice @ Monaco has been more exciting than some of the races so far this year. So refreshing to watch the drivers push hard without caring too much about tire management. Alonso definitely pushing his Ferrari to the limit! Merc looks unbeatable so far though.
Aldoid
23rd May 2013, 15:16
…on one lap pace, at least…
Himmat
23rd May 2013, 18:27
And what more is there to Monaco if not one-lap pace, my dear friend? Good old Kovy beat Button on merit last year simply because he got ahead at the start. Anyway, I want to see a Merc 1-2 with a train running up to P10/P12. That would be awesome!
Tayyib (@m0nzaman)
23rd May 2013, 15:47
Merc look seriously quick over 1 lap if they can make 1 stop strategy work they have got a really good chance. Lotus, Ferrari and Red Bull all in with a shout.
Nick.UK (@)
23rd May 2013, 17:19
Regarding Grosjean’s crash. Is it normal for a carbon fibre suspension/track rod or whatever to break like that? It just disintergrated into a cluster of threads. I’ve never ever seen that, and it’s not exactly uncommon to knock a wheel off in F1.
beneboy (@beneboy)
23rd May 2013, 23:15
@nick-uk
I was thinking that myself, never seen anything split apart into fibres like that so had me wondering if it was maybe a new type of wheel tether or something to hold the suspension assembly together. Although the view I was getting on TV didn’t give me a good enough view of that side of the car to be able to tell where/what it was attached to.
nickfrog (@nickfrog)
23rd May 2013, 18:07
Impressive Bianchi again. Come on, give him a Ferrari next year.