2014 Monaco Grand Prix Thursday - Practice
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The Sauber driver had a big lock-up and had to take the escape road. His car is parked there as the session is about to reach the end.
The yellow flags are out again as Gutierrez overshoots Sainte Devote.
Despite dodging between three cars between the tunnel and Rascasse, Ricciardo is only a tenth shy of his best time.
Ricciardo again improves in the first part of the lap, but there might be too much traffic around for this run to move him up from third.
With just under four minutes left, everyone is out except the Mercedes and the crashed cars of Sutil and Chilton.
Magnussen nearly made contact with a slow Force India as he was about to complete a flying lap. He had to lift a lot to avoid it.
Ricciardo is having one last shot at getting among the Mercedes as he improves in sector one.
EDD STRAW: The Mercedes takes the kerb at the Swimming Pool beautifully. Others hit it, the W05 glides over it.
Hulkenberg complaining about bottoming to his race engineer.
Quite a few drivers are finding more time in sector one, then not improving beyond that. Raikkonen, Vergne and Gutierrez latest to do so.
At the back, Marussia's Bianchi has a clear edge in the tail-end fight. He was as high as 12th earlier, but though he's slipped back to 19th, he's half a second clear of Ericsson.
The track has been cleared after Sutil's crash and the green flag is back out.
Raikkonen's lap tails off and he stays 10th.
Sutil has lost the rear end under braking. "The rear just snapped," he says.
The damaged car is being recovered already.
The damaged car is being recovered already.
With the yellows clear, Raikkonen is on a better lap. He's currently 10th, five places behind Alonso.
Crash
Sutil has crashed his Sauber at Mirabeau.
Hamilton told to brake two metres later for Sainte Devote in order to avoid the bump there.
The Mercedes are continuing on longer runs now, both drivers notching up their 27th laps of the session.
Another lock-up for Hamilton, who has had a few already in the session.
Next time round Rosberg does improve, closing the gap to Hamilton to 0.032s.
Rosberg drops time further around the lap and it ends up being a tenth shy of his previous best.
Force India asking Perez about the chance of doing a high-fuel run now because the chance of rain has increased to 50 per cent for the afternoon session.
EDD STRAW: The Lotus looks stronger in the fast corners than it does in the slow stuff.
New fastest first sector from Rosberg as he responds to Hamilton.
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Technical insight from Renault:
"Energy recovery is easy here: the corners are all taken at an ave of >100kph and the MGU-K will have enough chance to recharge."
"Energy recovery is easy here: the corners are all taken at an ave of >100kph and the MGU-K will have enough chance to recharge."
EDD STRAW: Red Bull looks great in the Swimming Pool section. It can ride the kerbs and bumps beautifully, very driver friendly.
Thirty minutes to go, and all drivers except Chilton, who stopped earlier, have gone quicker than the fastest Formula Renault 3.5 car during practice earlier this morning.
Perez moves up to seventh place. Force India has been solidly in top 10 contention so far today. Hulkenberg is ninth.
EDD STRAW: I never cease to be impressed by F1 drivers around this circuit. Shows how good they really are, even the so-called 'bad' ones.
Ricciardo now moves right onto the Mercedes' tail with a 1m18.506s, 0.235s off Hamilton and within 0.029s of Rosberg.
Running order going into the last half-hour:
1 Hamilton
2 Rosberg
3 Ricciardo
4 Alonso
5 Vettel
6 Bottas
7 Magnussen
8 Hulkenberg
9 Raikkonen
10 Button
11 Maldonado
12 Perez
13 Vergne
14 Massa
15 Sutil
16 Gutierrez
17 Grosjean
18 Bianchi
19 Kvyat
20 Ericssn
21 Kobayashi
22 Chilton
1 Hamilton
2 Rosberg
3 Ricciardo
4 Alonso
5 Vettel
6 Bottas
7 Magnussen
8 Hulkenberg
9 Raikkonen
10 Button
11 Maldonado
12 Perez
13 Vergne
14 Massa
15 Sutil
16 Gutierrez
17 Grosjean
18 Bianchi
19 Kvyat
20 Ericssn
21 Kobayashi
22 Chilton
Hulkenberg reports he is struggling with the brake balance of his Force India.
Living up to STRAW's billing, Williams goes up to fifth with Bottas.
EDD STRAW: Williams also looks good from trackside as usual. It's very nimble and the rear is easily collected.
EDD STRAW: It's hard to look beyond the Mercedes based on what I've seen so far, although the Red Bulls and Ferraris do look decent. I'm also impressed with Maldonado - although that isn't unusual here.
Magnussen complaining about blistering and told to pit if the situation is too bad.
Vettel improves to fifth now, 1.503s off the pace.
The pack is getting a little closer to Mercedes, improvements from Ricciardo and Alonso are now (a little) less than a second off the Mercedes.
EDD STRAW: Raikkonen is looking super-smooth and quick. There's a contract in style to Alonso, but it looks effective.
After that spell when the Mercedes had the track to themselves, now they're in the pits and every single other car is on the circuit.
By: Matt Beer, Ben Anderson, Pablo Elizalde, Edd Straw, Charles Bradley, Jonathan Noble
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