Ferrari top and tail damp second practice session

2014 Monaco Grand Prix second practice

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Rain ahead of the second practice was exactly what the drivers did not want. With Saturday and Sunday forecast to be dry they had no incentive to run on the wet track.

Valtteri Bottas was the only driver to venture out during the first 40 minutes, returning to the pits after a single, twitchy run. After that the track fell silent until Adrian Sutil ventured out in the Sauber just before the halfway mark.

The Ferrari drivers were among the first to join the track when the conditions improved, but Kimi Raikkonen didn’t stay out for long. His gearbox stuck in third as he passed the pits and he had to complete a slow tour back in, which marked the end of his session.

A handful of drivers completed laps on intermediate tyres before another wait began for the track to become dry enough for slick tyres. This didn’t happen until the final ten minutes, at which point all the remaining cars appeared on track at once.

Despite the inevitable traffic problems around the tight Monaco circuit, Fernando Alonso consistently posted the fastest times to end up on top with a lap of 1’18.482. Using the super-soft tyres on the still slippery track, his lap was two tenths of a second slower than the fastest from first practice set by Lewis Hamilton.

The Mercedes driver was second-quickest after having to abort one lap when he came across Marcus Ericsson who had crashed at Portier.

Sebastian Vettel took third ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne, Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, meaning six different teams took the top six places.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
114Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’18.48215
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’18.9010.41912
31Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’19.0170.53515
425Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Renault1’19.3510.86914
577Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’19.4210.9399
611Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’19.6681.1869
727Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’19.7121.23010
822Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’19.7211.23916
93Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’19.7791.29711
1020Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1’20.2301.74816
1119Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’20.3941.9128
1226Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’20.6222.14013
1399Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari1’20.8112.3298
1413Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1’20.9772.4957
1521Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’21.4672.9858
168Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’21.7003.2186
1710Kamui KobayashiCaterham-Renault1’21.9243.4426
1817Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari1’21.9373.45513
194Max ChiltonMarussia-Ferrari1’22.6834.20113
206Nico RosbergMercedes1’22.8624.38011
219Marcus EricssonCaterham-Renault1’23.1644.6826
227Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’45.50927.0274

Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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24 comments on “Ferrari top and tail damp second practice session”

  1. My God Alonso can hustle a car! A privilege to watch.

    1. Pure talent…give him a bus, and he still get the best out of it

  2. A Red Bull mechanic had to drag Raikkonen out of the way to keep him from being run over by Vettel:

    https://twitter.com/f1fanatic_co_uk/status/469474277897818112

    1. He badly wants to drive that Red Bull, lol. Or maybe he was bored.

    2. And your tweet was mentioned in a Finnish newspaper http://www.iltalehti.fi/formulat/2014052218332370_fo.shtml. Here’s a link to the video too:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Zx7Xz6u8M

    3. C’mon Kimi… your car isn’t so bad that it’s worth getting run over for.

    4. Big Nige to the rescue!

  3. Makes me laugh at all the people who buy all the hype with Ferrari. They always run light in practice, come Saturday they will struggle to get into the top 5.

    1. Should I say in the top 7!

    2. What hype?

      1. Do you go on other sites or watch the TV?

          1. Zzzz it happens every weekend on Sky and Autosport when Ferrari go for their usual practice glory runs.

          2. I see. No links.

  4. The cream rises :)

    1. To the top of the practice championship? :-)

    2. I bet he was giving 800 % ;-). I think Kimi and Fernando must deliberately drive relaxed to make the ferrari guys to improve things further ..Though you can’t do that today with telemetry .

  5. Your should have seen Alonso beating that donkey on the final time lap; You would think he was actually going for the podium…….I think few praises from Montezemolo can do a lot.

  6. Alonso could drive my go-kart as fast!
    Does the great man need to leave to win a third? Is so where? Mercs don’t need him, RBR only if Seb goes (why swap??) Dan looks tight (nice Daniel), Lotus have had issues (hopefully will recover), will Force India be a top 3 in 3 years??

    Ferd needs a buy into Merc at all cost next year!!

    1. he might actually be better of at McLaren if the Honda PU works out. Lewis is too good to give up, and Nico is perfect for the team.

      1. *off,

        Hope Lewis comes in on Saturday with his game face, showing up for work late … sheesh, Lewis can’t keep the bolder rolling by coming in late for practice.

      2. I may be wrong, but I think it’s a little too much hype around the Honda PU, especially in 2015. I mean, I’d be kinda amazed if the Honda PU will be the best right off the bat, not to mention 1 year deficit of racing experience. Mercedes PU is slightly revolutionary and its concept proved better, so if Honda doesn’t copy the Mercedes engine (or come up with a better ideea), then improve it… it’s hard to believe the engine switch will be a good move from McLaren. Then again, at least so far, McLaren’s problem seems to be the actual car, maybe a better driver too, but not the engine. They have the best engine on the grid, but it doesn’t show.

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