Webber seventh in 1st Thursday Monaco Practice

For the BMW WilliamsF1 team the opening Thursday practice for the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix would see Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld set a time the  seventh and eleventh fastest times.

The opening practice for the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix, held on Thursday rather than its normal Friday, would get under way with Minardi's Christijan Albers first to take to the track. Joining Albers on their first visit to the circuit was Patrick Friesacher, Narain Karthikeyan, Tiago Monteiro and Red Bulls' Tonio Liuzzi.

For the BMW WilliamsF1 team the FW27 would be carrying several new parts as they aim to improve the cars performance. The practice session would see many drivers make their installation lap, including the likes of Montoya, Wurz, Klein. The first driver to set a time would be Wurz with a 1m:24.835.

He would improve his time with a 1m:23.171. Joining Wurz was also the other Friday drivers Jordan's Robert Doornbos and Toyota's Ricardo Zonta. Klein's first time would be a 1m:23.868, while Zonta was a few seconds back with a 1m:26.568. Wurz would return to his pit. Klein would set the fastest time with a 1m:22.117. He would drop this down to a 1m:20.562.

With twenty minutes of the session run Liuzzi would set a time of 1m:23.305 to be second. Wurz was back out and would set a time of 1m:21.835 to push Liuzzi down one spot but the Italian would set a time to take the spot back.

The only cars yet to take to the track are from the BMW WilliamsF1's team. But with the session just about half complete Mark Webber would come out. At the front Wurz would go fastest with a 1m:20.244. Joining him would be the two Ferrari's of Michael Schumacher and Barrichello. Wurz would lower his time with a 1m:19.601.

Mark would move into seventh with a time of 1m:22.840, while Rubens was thirteenth and Ralf Schumacher fourth. But is a stunning piece of drving Michael Schumacher would go fastest with a time of 1m:19.522 after just one lap. But Kimi Raikkonen and Mark Webber would push him down the order as the McLaren and WilliansF1 drivers moved into first and second respectively.

Michael would return to the top of the times. Renault's Fernando Alonso would set a time of 1m:18.936 on his first lap. Toyota's Jarno Trulli, a previous winner, would set a time of 1m:23.957, good enough for only seventeenth. Klien would go fastest with a time of 1m:17.511. But Alonso would quickly beat this with a lap of 1m:17.301.

Just fifteen minutes remained in this first session. Mark Webber was down in sixth while team-mate Nick Heidfeld was down in fifteenth with a time of 1m:20.332. Juan Pablo Montoya would move near the top with a time of 1m:17.585. Now Michael Schumacher was back out and was fastest of all through sector one but was blocked by traffic. But on his next lap he would set a time of 1m:17.640 to be fourth fastest.

Fisichella was now in sixth, a time of 1m:18.161, with Mark pushed down one place. Giancarlo would improve to be in fifth with a time of 1m:17.869. But it would be Montoya who would set a stunning fastest time in the closing minutes of the session. He would set a time of 1m:17.152. With the end of the session it would be Montoya fastest from Alonso, Klien, Michael Schumacher, Fisichella, Wurz, Webber, and Ralf Schumacher making up the top eight. Nick Heidfeld would finish the session in eleventh.