Maldonado on top at Monaco
Pastor Maldonado took his usual position at the top of the times in GP2 free practice on Thursday
Maldonado (Piquet Sports), who has previously won here in Formula Renault 3.5 and GP2, lapped the famous street circuit in 1:21.701, almost half a second clear of teammate Andi Zuber and Bruno Senna (iSport).
As usual around the streets of Monte Carlo, the only track time before qualifying was hectic.
Adding to the drama was Zuber, who barged Adam Carroll (FMS) into the wall on the run between Casino Square and Mirabeau, wrecking Carroll's right-front corner. The Briton ended the session slowest of all, having completed only nine laps.
Earlier, Jerome d'Ambrosio (DAMS) lost a left-rear wheel at Mirabeau after it hadn't been attached properly.
Fourth fastest, having switched from Super Nova to DPR, was Andy Soucek. He was just a fraction behind Bruno Senna's time, and a tenth clear of the second iSport car of Karun Chandhok.
Series leader Giorgio Pantano was sixth fastest, almost nine tenths off the pace, ahead of Adrian Valles (BCN) and Turkey sprint race winner Romain Grosjean (ART), who was just quicker than Barcelona feature winner Alvaro Parente (Super Nova).
It was a bad session for Campos, as both of their cars hit the wall at Ste Devote. Ben Hanley spun backwards into the tyres, ending his session, while teammate Vitaly Petrov smote the Armco, re-arranging his left-rear wheel.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports 1:21.701 20 2. Andreas Zuber Piquet Sports 1:22.176 18 3. Bruno Senna iSport International 1:22.224 20 4. Andy Soucek DPR 1:22.251 20 5. Karun Chandhok iSport International 1:22.336 18 6. Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering 1:22.595 16 7. Adrian Valles BCN Competicion 1:22.607 17 8. Romain Grosjean ART Grand Prix 1:22.832 19 9. Alvaro Parente Super Nova Racing 1:22.917 17 10. Sebastien Buemi Trust Team Arden 1:23.020 17 11. Vitaly Petrov Campos Team 1:23.168 15 12. Christian Bakkerud Super Nova Racing 1:23.320 19 13. Mike Conway Trident Racing 1:23.438 10 14. Luca Filippi ART Grand Prix 1:23.794 18 15. Javier Villa Racing Engineering 1:24.173 15 16. Roldan Rodriguez Fisichella Motor Sport 1:24.201 19 17. Ben Hanley Campos Team 1:24.305 13 18. Kamui Kobayashi Dams 1:24.306 19 19. Jerome d'Ambrosio Dams 1:24.413 17 20. Marcello Puglisi Durango 1:24.495 17 21. Yelmer Buurman Trust Team Arden 1;24.697 18 22. Milos Pavlovic BCN Competicion 1:25.305 18 23. Ho-Pin Tung Trident Racing 1:25.916 16 24. Diego Nunes DPR 1:25.925 19 25. Alberto Valerio Durango 1:26.769 18 26. Adam Carroll Fisichella Motor Sport 1:27.352 9
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