Michelin strong on opening day

The streets of the Principality demand tyres as soft as used anywhere on the calendar and both Michelin and Bridgestone have brought new compounds to Monte Carlo. Nobody is suggesting, however, that seventh and 11th places are true reflections of the potential of either Rubens Barrichello or Michael Schumacher!

Michelin brought a brand new option (softer) tyre to Monaco and competitions boss Pierre Dupasquier said: "It's quite interesting because up until now the tyres have proved to be markedly different - and the option has been the quicker of the two. It remains to be seen whether this will be the case by the time the race comes around, because the track will definitely become much faster as the weekend wears on. I expect pole position to be in the 1m16s range (Jarno Trulli's session-topping Thursday time was 1m18.915s).

Bridgestone, meanwhile, has brought three new tyre specifications to Monaco - two dry weather and one intermediate. Talking about the dry weather tyres, Bridgestone technical manager, Hisao Suganuma, said: "One definitely has more grip while the other has better balance." Suganuma admitted that graining was an issue but said that it can be improved by car set-up.

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn admitted: "We tried both tyres and it's not quite clear yet which one we will use. Thursday in Monaco is always a little fragmented with people falling off and hitting the barriers, and it's difficult to run a smooth programme."