Monaco GP: Lewis Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 in FP1
Formula 1 world championship leader Lewis Hamilton edged team-mate Nico Rosberg to set the pace in the first free practice session for this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix
The Mercedes duo traded places at the top of the timesheet before Hamilton asserted himself with the fastest time of the session roughly halfway through.
Rosberg was fastest of all in the first sector of the lap, but his later efforts to topple his team-mate fell short by less than half a tenth of a second.
Daniel Ricciardo interloped in this personal battle by briefly going fastest in the early part of the session, and he was one of only two other drivers to ultimately lap below 1m19s.
The Australian looked to have Red Bull's RB10 hooked up nice an early and he wound up third fastest, less than a quarter of a second slower than Hamilton.
The last man below 1m19s was Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who leapt to fourth with 10 minutes left of the session to run.
That bumped world champion Sebastian Vettel to fifth. The German took a while to find his own groove and ended up half a second shy of his team-mate's best time.
Alonso's Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen also improved late on to round out the top six, less than a tenth clear of fellow Finn Valtteri Bottas in the best of the two Williams.
Sergio Perez had his Force India inside the top three early on, but although he improved his time the Mexican slipped back to eighth as the session wore on.
He was just under two tenths faster than team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, who complained of some braking issues and ended up just fractions of a second slower than Kevin Magnussen's McLaren.
Hulkenberg was the last man to lap below 1m20s in the session. His Force India rounded out the top 10, ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button and Esteban Gutierrez, who was an impressive 12th fastest for Sauber.
Lotus has shown improved form recently but struggled in this session, as Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado could only manage the 13th and 14th fastest times.
Felipe Massa also struggled in the second Williams, winding up 16th fastest behind Jean-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso.
There were suggestions ahead of the event that Monaco might present the toughest challenge of the season to the drivers, but there were only a handful of significant incidents.
Max Chilton's Marussia became stranded after an early spin at Mirabeau, while Adrian Sutil's Sauber struck the barrier after a spin at the same corner in the late-stages.
Raikkonen's Ferrari spun but continued at Ste Devote on his final run, while team-mate Alonso took to the escape road at Mirabeau after locking his brakes, but the Spaniard easily kept his car out of the barriers.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m18.271s 32 2. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m18.303s +0.032s 31 3. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m18.506s +0.235s 37 4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m18.930s +0.659s 31 5. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m19.043s +0.772s 33 6. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m19.467s +1.196s 31 7. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m19.494s +1.223s 31 8. Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m19.666s +1.395s 29 9. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1m19.789s +1.518s 29 10. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m19.856s +1.585s 38 11. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m20.033s +1.762s 35 12. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m20.118s +1.847s 33 13. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m20.207s +1.936s 33 14. Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1m20.241s +1.970s 38 15. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 1m20.260s +1.989s 36 16. Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m20.517s +2.246s 25 17. Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1m20.736s +2.465s 18 18. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 1m20.914s +2.643s 37 19. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1m21.310s +3.039s 27 20. Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1m22.063s +3.792s 40 21. Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1m22.492s +4.221s 38 22. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1m25.817s +7.546s 7
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