UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Prac 2: Alonso keeps his head

Many crash in Monaco

It had to happen - the vultures have been circling, waiting patiently, for four races now; Lewis Hamilton made a mistake in second practice for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Formula One's brightest new star had already lapped the legendary harbour-side circuit in 1:16.296 - one of a number of laps he produced that were well over a second faster than he went this morning - before he lost it under breaking at St Devote. His bent Mclaren MP4-22 would take no further part in the session.

With Hamilton out, Fernando Alonso’s subsequent time of 1:15.940 remained unchallenged for the day, the Spaniard looking at one with the car as he reeled off the inch-perfect lap.

The closest challenge came from the red camp – darker red, as it happens, than has been seen for many a year – in the shape of Kimi Raikkonen, the quicker of the two Ferrari men today. Raikkonen had the final sector of the lap wrapped up to perfection, but lost out significantly in the early part – as did team mate Felipe Massa.

The Finn could not join Alonso in the sub one-minute-sixteen barrier, his fastest just over a quarter of a second slower than the Spaniard. Massa’s time – a full half a second slower than Raikkonen – gave him sixth fastest time at the close of play.

Fourth place represents a truly heroic effort from Jarno Trulli, a man always scintillating around this place. Either that, or Toyota are doing something right.

If they are, they clearly don’t know what it is, as the second car of Ralf Schumacher ended the day down in 20th position, almost two and a half seconds slower than Trulli and with only the Spyker pair behind him.

To the Germans credit he was on the way to his best lap of the day – but crashed in the swimming pool section in the closing seconds of the session. He was, though, already a full second slower than Trulli’s best by then. Toyota has a dilemma as, quite clearly, Trulli is driving out of his skin, and Ralf is simply not.

From Alonso at the front to Trulli in fourth represents a gap of four tenths of a second.

Giancarlo Fisichella put in the sort of performance that he can when he wants to – gutsy and quick – and came in fifth for Renault, a further four tenths behind Trulli, and here we have a further ‘tale of team mates’.

Heikki Kovalainen has looked at sea in both sessions, bringing this one to a close over one and a quarter seconds slower than Fisichella, including an excursion down the St Devote escape road on one tour. 17th fastest is not good enough, and the likeable young Finn needs to produce more of what we saw in Spain if he is to justify his claim to the drive.

Behind Massa, who sits in sixth place, came the first of the BMW-Sauber runners, this time the honour going to Robert Kubica.

Early in the session the Pole was the man to beat, but as the faster cars got up to speed he found himself slipping down the order. Late in the session the team appeared to opt for consistent running as opposed to quick laps, and it is to be suspected there is more pace in the F1.07. Nick Heidfeld suffered problems with the fuel pressure in the sister car and could not match his time from this morning.

Nico Rosberg is another man showing fine form this season and this afternoon was no different as the youngster took the Williams to eighth position, the last man within a second of Alonso. Team mate Alex Wurz’s best lap was half a second slower, although he was on one that would likely have matched Rosberg had he not been curtailed by the final minute yellow flags.

Together in ninth and tenth are the Red Bull pair – Mark Webber fractionally quicker than David Coulthard, and one senses that drivers and team may be disappointed, having come here expecting more. Coulthard did have an excuse in the form of a brush with the barriers following a spin, but the four tenth gap between Rosberg and Webber is surely not what was expected, and we can only surmise that there is more to come from the RB3.

Another double act follows in 11th and 12th, where Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button continue to doggedly squeeze every ounce of performance out of what is – let’s be honest – a dog of a car. The RA107 does not handle, is slow, and – well – that’s it, really.

At least the works Hondas bettered the Super Aguri duo today, with Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson setting somewhat lacklustre 13th and 19th fastest times. Davidson did not help matters by pre-empting Hamilton’s St Devote crash with a similar one of his own, thus ending any further chance of running.

Liuzzi and Speed flattered in the Toro Rosso early on, but were put back in their rightful places – 16th and 18th, two seconds off the pace – pretty quickly, and the main excitement in the Spyker pit was Adrian Sutil’s red flag inducing heavy crash at Portier. The German emerged unscathed, the car not so.

We head into third practice and qualifying – in two days time, remember; the good and the great of Monte Carlo wish to be left alone on Fridays – with the clear feeling that it is Mclaren who have the edge here, that Raikkonen clearly has the upper hand on Massa so far, and that Jarno Trulli could well ruin many peoples race if he manages to reproduce the simply astonishing pace he showed today.

As Murray Walker famously said “In Formula One anything can happen, and it usually does!’ Nowhere is that more true than at Monaco, and that is why we love it.

Written: Thu, 24 May 2007 16:28:04