UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Barrichello top in P1

Mclaren three and four

Opening practice at glorious Monaco saw a mixed bag in terms of results, as the twists and turns of the streets of the principality are renowned for bringing out the best in the driver.

Top of the tree at the close of the 90 minute session was Rubens Barrichello, the Brazilian out to set the record straight at Brawn this weekend and setting a time of 1:17.189s, three tenths up on the best time from his countryman Felipe Massa in the much improved Ferrari F60.

McLaren have been insistent all year that the problem in their car is in high speed corners, and with their being none to speak of here it was interesting to see Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen take third and fourth positions, the world champion less than a tenth down on Massa and a similar amount up on his Finnish team mate.

Kimi Raikkonen put the second Ferrari in fifth, while Kazuki Nakajima again showed promise for Williams with the next two slots. Jenson Button had a quiet day to return eighth fastest time, and Fernando Alonso was the first man over a second away from the fastest times in the Renault R29.

Red Bull debuted a new double diffuser here, and may not be fairly represented with 10th and 13th for Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel: the latter suffered an engine failure and the team seemed to take the decision to halt Webber’s progress as a result, although before the incident the Australian had been in the thick of the action at the front of the times.

If it was a poor session for Red Bull, it was a disaster for both BMW-Sauber and Toyota. The blue and white cars were described as ‘impossible to drive’ – Robert Kubica – and ‘dangerous’ by Nick Heidfeld, both of who appeared to b struggling with a simply uncompetitive F1.09, while the Toyota pair – confident of a good showing here – curiously finished last of all.

An interesting start to the weekend on a warm and beautiful day, with more to come soon.

Written: Thu, 21 May 2009 10:12:23