So it seems Fernando Alonso is the one to watch in this year's Monaco Grand Prix after he set the quickest time in the first practice session, which proved to be rather dramatic! Heikki Kovalainen suffered a spectacular engine blow-out in the tunnel which eventually led to the stopping of the race because there was so much smoke the other drivers couldn't see - this happened in the final ten minutes of the 90 minute race and the session was not restarted. Lotus's Romain Grosjean came in second with a time 0.365 seconds slower than Alonso and Sauber driver Sergio Perez was third, which is pretty impressive considering his terrifying crash on the circuit last year. Whilst the session proved fruitful for some, reigning world champion, Sebastian Vettel, did not have such a great time - it was 30 minutes in before he posted a lap time which was only good enough to put him into eighteenth place. Although I'm sure that would have been good enough for Kimi Raikkonen who retired after just one lap with a steering complaint. Two-time world champion Mika Hakkinen, watched the action by the swimming pool chicane and explained:
Monaco is a difficult circuit to drive because the barriers are so close. You need to have the perfect run and have maximum concentration to get a good lap.
Grosjean spoke after the race and was full of positivity. He said:
I like Monaco. I like the track; it's good fun. The car is going well at the moment and let's see what we can do later on.
Maybe Alonso isn't the one to watch - if nothing else he has some serious competition from the Lotus driver. It's not long now until the big day! On behalf of TeamSport I would like to wish all the drivers a successful and safe race - my money remains on Alonso! Check out the top ten times:
- 1. Fernando Alonso 1m16.265s
- 2. Romain Grosjean 1m16.630s + 0.365
- 3. Sergio Perez 1m16.711s + 0.446
- 4. Lewis Hamilton 1m16.747s + 0.482
- 5. Pastor Maldonado 1m16.760s + 0.495
- 6. Felipe Massa 1m16.843s + 0.578
- 7. Kamui Kobayashi 1m17.038s + 0.773
- 8. Jenson Button 1m17.190s + 0.925
- 9. Sebastian Vettel 1m17.222s + 0.957
- 10. Nico Rosberg 1m17.261s + 0.996 SHARE ON FACEBOOK