Hamilton tops the timesheets in FP1 in Monaco

Nico Rosberg tops the timesheets in FP1 in Monaco Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets at the first practice session ahead of Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen and Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo.

Before the start of the session, it was confirmed that Lotus driver Romain Grosjean will receive a five place grid penalty for changing his gearbox.

During the session, we saw Daniel Ricciardo twice going into the first corner at Sainte Devote going wide into the corner but he was able to continue. We also saw Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado doing the same thing as Ricciardo but was also able to continue in the session.

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel on the way down to the Mirabeau corner turned into the corner as normal and managed after getting some oversteer managing beautifully not to put his Ferrari into the barriers and was able to continue during the session.

But it was Lewis Hamilton that topped the timesheets with a laptime of a 1.18.750 ahead of Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen who was 0.149 seconds behind him but he was ahead of Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo who was 0.336 seconds off the pace of Hamilton.

Sebastian Vettel ended the session in fourth place ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr in fifth place, Pastor Maldonado in sixth place and Daniil Kvyat in seventh place. Kimi Raikkonen finished the session in eighth place ahead of Nico Rosberg in ninth place and Felipe Massa who rounded off the top ten finishers.

The McLaren-Honda drivers of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button finished the session in eleventh and twelfth places ahead of Romain Grosjean in thirteenth place and the Force India drivers of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg who ended the session in fourteenth and fifteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Felipe Nasr finished the session in sixteenth place ahead of Valtteri Bottas in seventeenth place, Marcus Ericsson in eighteenth place and the Manor F1 drivers of Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi who ended the session in nineteenth and twentieth places.

The classification of FP1 for the Monaco GP is as follows:-

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.18.
2. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 0.149s
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 0.336s
4. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 0.384s
5. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 0.495s
6. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, 0.704s
7. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull-Renault, 0.770s
8. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 0.929s
9. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.012s
10. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.016s
11. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1.041s
12. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1.452s
13. Romain Grosjean, Lotus-Mercedes, 1.524s
14. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.809s
15. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 2.034s
16. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 2.107s
17. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 2.167s
18. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 2.469s
19. Will Stevens, Manor-Marussia, 4.484s
20. Roberto Merhi, Manor-Marussia, 4.654s

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa