Alonso edges Vettel in Monaco practice

Just 0.089 seconds covered the top three at the end of a close-fought session in perfect conditions.

Although the session had started quietly, with no one trying a flying lap until nearly 20 minutes in, the times came down quickly as the field started serious running just after the half hour mark. Felipe Massa and the McLaren pair swapped the top spot several times, before Robert Kubica took a quick turn in front for Renault.

The Pole was only there fleetingly though, as Alonso then produced a 1m15.927s to go quickest with 20 minutes to go.

Vettel looked like he might depose the Ferrari in the final minutes, but missed first place by 0.073s.

Kubica held on to third, only 0.016s down on Vettel, with Barcelona winner Mark Webber fourth for Red Bull despite a few traffic frustrations.

Massa and Mercedes' Michael Schumacher completed the top six, ahead of the two McLarens, Force India's Adrian Sutil and Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi.

Nico Rosberg spent nearly half the session in the garage while work was carried out on his Mercedes, and was only 11th.

Despite fears of chaos with the increased field size and the speed disparity between the frontrunners and the new teams, the session saw relatively little incident, bar the inevitable trips over the chicane run-off.

The only drivers to actually crash were Hispania's Karun Chandhok, who spun and brushed the barriers at Massenet, and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi, who misjudged his entry to the Swimming Pool, bounced over the kerbs and clouted the Armco on his last run.

Virgin's Timo Glock was quickest among the new teams, just ahead of the Lotus duo.


Pos  Driver         Team                   Time              Laps
 1.  Alonso         Ferrari               1:15.927            31
 2.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault      1:16.000  + 0.073   26
 3.  Kubica         Renault               1:16.016  + 0.089   28
 4.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1:16.382  + 0.455   24
 5.  Massa          Ferrari               1:16.517  + 0.590   29
 6.  Schumacher     Mercedes              1:16.589  + 0.662   21
 7.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes      1:16.647  + 0.720   32
 8.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1:16.692  + 0.765   29
 9.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1:16.805  + 0.878   23
10.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:16.857  + 0.930   30
11.  Rosberg        Mercedes              1:17.149  + 1.222   14
12.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth     1:17.331  + 1.404   28
13.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes  1:17.704  + 1.777   26
14.  Petrov         Renault               1:17.718  + 1.791   38
15.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:17.991  + 2.064   36
16.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth     1:18.397  + 2.470   39
17.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari        1:18.434  + 2.507   37
18.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari        1:18.547  + 2.620   32
19.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1:19.527  + 3.600   23
20.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth        1:19.606  + 3.679   31
21.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth        1:19.902  + 3.975   30
22.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth       1:20.566  + 4.639   18
23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth          1:21.688  + 5.761   27
24.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth          1:21.853  + 5.926   6

All Timing Unofficial