Monaco GP : Maldonado encouraging 7th in FP1

With Pirelli's super soft rubber making its debut this weekend the AT&T Williams team would see the opening Thursday practice session for the 2011 Monaco Grand Prix get underway. The drivers will have the choice between the soft and super soft tyre for the weekend. Kovalainen would be first out onto the circuit. More drivers would come out for their installation laps on a dry and sunny day. Both Williams drivers, Pastor Maldonado and Rubens Barrichello, would complete their installation laps.

It would take over thirty minutes before Pastor would return to the track. At this time the fastest time had been set by Perez with a 1m:25.280. But he would lower this with a 1m:23.206. Pastor would complete his first timed lap in 1m:26.621 moving into third position behind Perez and Karthikeyan. Pastor would lower his time with a 1m:24.140 to noe be second. On his next lap he would set a 1m:21.902 to go fastest. Di Resta would move into second while Pastor would set a 1m:21.287, followed by a 1m:21.064. Massa would go fastest with a 1m:20.490 but Sutil would take this spot with a 1m:20.394.

Rubens had taken to the track and was up to fourth with a 1m:21.003. Vettel was also out on the track and would move up to third with a 1m:20.812. With that the session would be stopped as a result of water appearing on the section of track where the grid is located. The problem was sorted out and the session restarted. For Webber his session would come to an end as he was to suffer a gearbox problem that would see his stuck in gear. With an hour of the session completed Hamilton would set the fastest first sector but would remain second to Massa. But Hamilton would set a 1m:18.136 to go fastest. But he would be beaten by Rosberg with a 1m:17.991. Rubens would move up to seventh with a 1m:19.741. More drivers were finding improvements with their times as Alonso went fastest with a 1m:17.619.

Alonso was fastest with Massa now second, Rosberg third, Hamilton fourth and Button fifth. Schumacher was sixth with just over twenty minutes remaining, ahead of Rubens in seventh, Buemi eighth and Kovalainen ninth. Hamilton would find further improvements to go fastest with a 1m:17.350. Vettel was now seventh and Sutil eighth. Massa would again lower the quickest time with a 1m:17.316 while Vettel was now fourth. Vettel would continue to find time with a 1m:17.309 to be fastest. With under ten minutes remaining Schumacher would crash at Ste Devote sliding sideways into the barrier after locking up and not making the escape road. Rosberg was now quickest with a 1m:17.139 while for Williams Pastor would move into seventh with a 1m:18.527.

As the final minutes counted own Vettel would return to the top of the times with a 1m:16.781. Alonso was second with a 1m:17.109. But right at the end of the session Alonso would set a 1m:16.732 to go fastest but Vettel would retake this spot with a 1m:16.619. Rosberg was now third from Massa, Hamilton, Button, and for Williams Pastor was in an encouraging seventh. Team-mate Rubens would finish in thirteenth. Webber would not return to the track so would finish the session having completed just three laps.

Pos  Driver          Team		       Time       Laps
 1.  S Vettel        Red Bull-Renault          1m16.619s  25
 2.  F Alonso        Ferrari                   1m16.732s  24
 3.  N Rosberg       Mercedes                  1m17.139s  20
 4.  F Massa         Ferrari                   1m17.316s  24
 5.  L Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes          1m17.350s  23
 6.  J Button        McLaren-Mercedes          1m17.534s  24
 7.  P Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth         1m18.527s  30
 8.  A Sutil         Force India-Mercedes      1m18.578s  24
 9.  V Petrov        Renault                   1m18.733s  16
10.  M Schumacher    Mercedes                  1m18.805s  14
11.  N Heidfeld      Renault                   1m18.928s  19
12.  S Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari        1m19.234s  24
13.  R Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth         1m19.395s  24
14.  D Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari        1m19.463s  25
15.  K Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari            1m19.768s  25
16.  S Perez         Sauber-Ferrari            1m19.792s  26
17.  H Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault             1m20.083s  23
18.  J Trulli        Lotus-Renault             1m21.116s  27
19.  P di Resta      Force India-Mercedes      1m21.548s  32
20.  J D'Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth           1m21.758s  31
21.  T Glock         Virgin-Cosworth           1m21.815s  17
22.  T Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth              1m22.840s  13
23.  N Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth              1m23.885s  37
24.  M Webber        Red Bull-Renault          No time    3