Ferrari Fast First

It's almost never the case that Ferrari is fast in first practice yet today, Fernando Alonso seemed very comfortable and was the only driver in the 1:14 range. You sensed others tried a bit of a late charge to win the "headline Grand Prix" but by the end of the session the temperature dropped and there were a few drops of rain and what grip there was, went away. The Ferrari crew looked quite pleased with themselves.

Monaco may not produce many exciting races but practice and qualifying are just spectacular. The speed at which an F1 car can negotiate the left right of the entrance to the "swimming pool" complex has to be seen in person to be believed, TV pictures just do not do it justice. Big change this year are the raised curbs in the two slow chicanes, after the tunnel and at the back end of the swimming pool. You can see it in the video clip below, it's the yellow raised section. It will certainly be a deterrent as any car hitting those at speed will surely lose traction and time at the very least.

A couple of on-boards after the jump (you might need to get it to buffer first, sorry)

Pos  Driver         Team                   Time              Laps
 1.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:14.904            36
 2.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:15.013  + 0.109   39
 3.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:15.099  + 0.195   47
 4.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:15.120  + 0.216   44
 5.  Schumacher     Mercedes                1:15.143  + 0.239   38
 6.  Kubica         Renault                 1:15.192  + 0.288   38
 7.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:15.249  + 0.345   32
 8.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1:15.460  + 0.556   42
 9.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:15.619  + 0.715   37
10.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault        1:15.620  + 0.716   28
11.  Petrov         Renault                 1:15.746  + 0.842   44
12.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:16.276  + 1.372   46
13.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth       1:16.348  + 1.444   48
14.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1:16.522  + 1.618   37
15.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:16.528  + 1.624   42
16.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari          1:16.599  + 1.695   36
17.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:16.818  + 1.914   45
18.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:17.023  + 2.119   28
19.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          1:18.184  + 3.280   47
20.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth         1:18.478  + 3.574   38
21.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth          1:18.667  + 3.763   13
22.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         1:18.721  + 3.817   41
23.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth            1:20.313  + 5.409   35
24.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth            1:22.148  + 7.244   11

All Timing Unofficial