The most glamorous and glitzy race on the F1 calendar, the Monaco Grand Prix, will take place over the weekend. The proceedings began with the first free practice session on Thursday (only for this race) which saw championship leader Lewis Hamilton and teammate Nico Rosberg set the fastest times of 1.18.273 and 1.18.303, respectively, establishing their dominance over the principality’s street circuit. Rounding up the top three was the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo who managed to set a time of 1.18.506.
Fernando Alonso brought his Ferrari home in fourth place ahead of Sebastian Vettel and teammate Kimi Raikkonnen. Valtteri Bottas in the Williams took seventh place ahead of Sergio Perez and ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg in the sister Force India. It appears that the Mercedes- powered cars are clearly the more powerful ones on the field as they have taken six out of the available 10 places.
The stage for the second session was set by a bout of rain. This meant that for almost 45 minutes there were no cars on the track apart from a solitary lap from Valtteri Bottas. With no rain predicted for Saturday and Sunday none of the teams saw a need to send their cars out and risk an accident. The first man to emerge from the pits was Adrian Sutil in his Sauber who only did a reconnaissance lap before returning to the pits. He was later followed by the Toro Rosso’s of Dani Kvyat and Jean Eric Vergne who managed to set the first lap times of the session.
The last 40 minutes of the session saw everyone emerge on to the track to set some lap times. Fernando Alonso topped the time sheet ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. Jean Eric Vergne and Valtteri Bottas took fourth and fifth place in the practice session. The Williams driver has been looking particularly strong in the 2014 season and seems to be getting more out his car than his highly rated teammate, Felipe Massa, who could only manage 11th place in the session.
The Force India duo of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg took sixth and seventh place respectively ahead of Jenson Button and Daniel Ricciardo. Rounding up the top was Kevin Magnussen in the sister McLaren.
We expect a lot of action from the streets of Monte Carlo on Saturday afternoon. Looking at the Mercedes engine’s performance it seems almost safe to say that it will be one of their cars that will dominate Saturday and Sunday too.
Image:helionly
