Morning everyone, and welcome to ESPNF1's live coverage of the final free practice session in Monaco. After the drivers and teams had a day off yesterday - spent by most doing PR - Formula One action returns to the streets. |
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There will be a couple of drivers looking to make up for lost time in this morning's hour-long session, namely Mark Webber, who sat out first free practice on Thursday with a gearbox problem. Paul di Resta has also yet to try out the super-soft tyres having missed the last hour of the second session. |
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The rest of the field will be looking to fine tune their cars to work out which strategy is best for the race on Sunday. It's another fine and sunny day in Monaco, as is expected for the rest of the weekend. |
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And we are underway, with Kamui Kobayashi first out on track. All of the drivers will be looking to get back in to the groove today though after a day off, so we already have ten out on track. |
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Installation laps for all. There have been a lot of events and parties held over the last two nights and the track will need to be cleaned up by the cars in a few places. |
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Michael Schumacher is on a flying lap and is the first man to set a time, a 1:22.441 |
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Schumacher is running on the prime tyre - which is the soft compound - and goes quicker again with a 1:20.175 |
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On his third lap Schumacher is 0.2s quicker in the first sector, and improves to a 1:19.962. It's a sign that drivers are trying to get to grips with the circuit again. |
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Big accident for Nico Rosberg. His car is badly damaged but he's lucky to be walking away. He lost the car under braking on the exit of the tunnel. |
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The car snapped away from him as he hit the brakes and he speared right in to the wall, losing the front wing and braking the front right suspension and puncturing the right rear. That meant he only had half the braking capacity and was launched over the kerbs in the middle of the chicane, just missing the barrier that Jenson Button hit in 2003. |
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I say lucky to be walking away because when Button hit that barrier he missed the race due to injury. Replays show some very clever driving from Rosberg, turning the wheel away from the barrier and then getting both hands off the steering wheel to protect himself. |
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So, while Rosberg is fine, his car certainly isn't, and that's going to be a major job for the Mercedes mechanics to try and get it fixed for qualifying. We're still under red flag conditions but the clock continues to tick down as Rosberg returns to the pit lane. |
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The session has restarted, and cars are quickly out on track to try and make up for lost time. |
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Nick Heidfeld is first man back out, with 39 minutes still remaining. It's a busy track out there, but it will be busy in the garages too as the teams try to work out what they can now do with the time available. |
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Schumacher is told over the team radio: "We think that Nico locked the rears over the bump exiting the tunnel, and we think that he had quite low tyre pressures at the time which probably contributed to the problem." |
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16 cars on track now, and we've already had a few queues at Rascasse as cars try to find clear air. Expect more of the same in qualifying later. |
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Perez sets the second quickest time, a 1:21.206. Still over 1.2s slower than Schumacher as he has had more time on track this morning. |
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Perez sets the second quickest time, a 1:21.206. Still over 1.2s slower than Schumacher as he has had more time on track this morning. |
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Schumacher improves to a 1:18.566, and then Buemi posts the quickest first sector on his way to a 1:18.778 |
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Alonso sets the fastest time so far - 1:18.150 - as he is straight on the pace. The quickest time on Thursday was a 1:15.123 so they are still a long way off that. |
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Rubens Barrichello is still in the pits with what is apparently a gearbox issue. Lewis Hamilton is also still to come out as he complained about the set-up on his installation lap. |
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Alonso improves to a 1:15.924, setting the fastest three sectors. Jenson Button is second on a 1:17.130. |
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Hamilton is now on track, as are 17 other cars. Not a lot of clean air around the streets. |
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Button improves to a 1:16.338. |
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OfficialMGP (Mercedes) on Twitter: "Michael switching to options for his next run" |
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Vettel is third quickest, half a second slower than Alonso. Rubens Barrichello has made it out on track now too. |
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Massa has been looking very ragged all weekend so far, and is over half a second slower than his team-mate before backing off. |
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Schumacher on the super-soft tyre, and goes second fastest with a 1:16.161. The extra grip doesn't really get utilised until the second and third sectors here. |
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OfficialLRGP (Renault) on Twitter: "Vitaly boxes, practice start, reports lack of rear tyre temperature, reasonable amount of understeer. orders more negative camber on front" |
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Vettel on a flying lap and he goes quickest by half a second with a 1:15.423 |
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Hamilton crosses the line 0.27s slower than Vettel. |
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Vettel going quicker again on the soft tyre - which is the harder of the two compounds - but he loses a bit of time in the last sector. He was using KERS through the tunnel though, so Red Bull look like they have sorted any gremlins from Spain for now. |
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Webber is out on track and he's gone fourth quickest with a 1:16.090 |
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With 20 minutes left the busiest men so far are Schumacher, Webber, Sutil, di Resta, Kovalainen and Glock. They've all done 12 laps. |
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Webber not using DRS on his last lap - which was a 1:15.772 - which would suggest that he's simulating race runs. |
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Both Red Bull cars continue to circulate, and Vettel takes 0.2s off his previous best time with a 1:15.245 |
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Vettel, Webber, Alonso, Button, Alguersuari, Maldonado, Kobayashi, Perez and Petrov out on track at the moment. |
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Webber locking his right front on the run down to the Nouvelle Chicane. |
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Alonso is using his DRS as he heads up the hill on super-soft tyres, so he's practicing a qualifying lap. |
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Alguersuari is moving slowly with a damaged right rear wheel, and he baulks Alonso on his quick lap. Not a lot he could do to be fair. |
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Button was also on a quick lap and had to negotiate Alguersuari exiting the swimming pool chicane. He improved to a 1:15.300 on the super-soft tyre. |
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Alonso gets a clean lap in, and it's quick - 0.8s faster than Vettel with a 1:14.433. |
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Button took a slow lap before trying to improve on the option tyre, and goes quicker than Vettel but still over half a second slower than Alonso. |
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Lots of drivers on the super-soft tyre now, Schumacher does a 1:15.833, while Hamilton can only do a 1:15.386 which is the best part of a second slower than Alonso. |
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Massa does a 1:15.090 to set the third fastest time. Alonso is still lapping on the super-soft tyre and gets within 0.2s of his best time, so there is life in the tyre for two runs. |
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Massa runs wide in to turn one and has to spin the car round in the run-off area. It isn't damaged though and he continues up the hill. |
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Schumacher has lowered his best time to a 1:15.310 |
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Tonio Liuzzi has smashed his HRT in to the barriers exiting Ste Devote and put a lot of debris on track. |
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The car was bottoming out as he reached turn one, the rear end got away from him and hit the tyre wall, spinning the front left in to the wall as well. |
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The car is winched away, always a strange sight seeing a car flying above the Monaco skyline. |
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A train of cars head out on to track, and they'll get one flying lap in and a practice start. |
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Anyone leaving the pits now won't get to set a time, but cars are still leaving the pits. Only the three damaged cars (Alguersuari had a puncture) and Karthikeyan are not out on track. |
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That's a lot of work for HRT to do by the way. With its limited resources it might struggle to get Liuzzi out for qualifying. |
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The chequered flag falls with a lot of cars on a flying lap. |
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Mark Webber improves to a 1:15.529. Nobody else doing anything notable. |
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So as the cars all line up to try practice starts on the grid, Fernando Alonso sits top of the time sheets with a 1:14.433. He's half a second quicker than Jenson Button and Felipe Massa. Vettel, Schumacher, Hamilton, Webber, Alguersuari, Buemi and Perez complete the top ten. |
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Kovalainen was within a tenth of Sutil and 0.3s of the Renault pair - can Lotus get in to Q2 for the second race in succession? At the front, Alonso again is quickest man around the streets in practice, but can he become the first to beat a Red Bull to pole? Join us later to find out. |