Posted on 27th May 2016
In the first practice session in Monaco, Lewis Hamilton set the pace ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel in an action-packed session that saw several drivers pushing the limits on the circuit and also as a loose manhole cover was kicked up onto the circuit.
During FP1, there was several offs during the session, with Felipe Massa putting his Williams in the wall at Ste Devote and damaging the left side of his car. The Brazilian driver did not emerge again but was not the only man to be caught out by the first corner, with several drivers including Hamilton locking up and running into the deep run-off area later in the session.
In the final half hour of the session, Jolyon Palmer hit the wall after getting some oversteer at Tabac, this then cost the Englishman valuable track time at the end of the session.
But FP1 was stopped prematurely after a loose manhole cover was kicked up onto the circuit.The session came to a conclusion three minutes early when Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes appeared to kick up a manhole cover at the bottom of the hill at Turn 1, which bounced across the track and underneath the McLaren of Jenson Button.
The cover destroyed the McLaren’s front wing and gave the 2009 world champion a puncture, an incident which could have been much more serious if the cover had bounced towards the cockpit area. After an inspection by FIA race director Charlie Whiting, a replacement manhole cover was welded back into place to avoid a repeat in afternoon F1, GP2 and Porsche Supercup sessions.
But it was Lewis Hamilton who was fastest with a lap time of 1.15.537 ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg in second place who was 0.101 seconds behind him and ahead of Sebastian Vettel in third place who was 0.419 seconds behind Hamilton.
Daniel Ricciardo finished the session in fourth place ahead of Max Verstappen in fifth place, Daniil Kvyat in sixth place, Nico Hulkenberg in seventh place, Sergio Perez in eighth place, Kimi Raikkonen in ninth place and Carlos Sainz Jr who rounded off the top ten finishers.
Valtteri Bottas ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Romain Grosjean in twelfth place, Fernando Alonso in thirteenth place, Esteban Gutierrez in fourteenth place and Jenson Button in fifteenth place.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Felipe Nasr ended the session in sixteenth place ahead of Kevin Magnussen in seventeenth place, Marcus Ericsson in eighteenth place, Felipe Massa in nineteenth place, Jolyon Palmer in twentieth place, Rio Haryanto in twenty-first place and. Pascal Wehrlein in twenty-second place.
The classification of FP1 for the Monaco GP is as follows:-
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.15.537
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 0.101s
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 0.419s
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 0.771s
5. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 0.834s
6. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 0.889s
7. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.023s
8. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.160s
9. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1.375s
10. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.593s
11. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 2.025s
12. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 2.062s
13. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 2.301s
14. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 2.372s
15. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 2.383s
16. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 2.650s
17. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 2.737s
18. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 2.764s
19. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 3.209s
20. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 3.334s
21. Rio Haryanto, MRT Racing, 4.991s
22. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 5.331s
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
