'Baptism of Fire' for Rookie Massa

Brazilian Felipe Massa endured what he tagged as a baptism of fire in Thursday's free practice sessions for his first Monaco Grand Prix.

The Sauber driver, making his Formula One debut this season after winning the European F3000 championship last year, had a troubled session, spinning his car during the afternoon session and later ending against the unforgiving walls of the Monte Carlo circuit.

"It's been quite a baptism for me here in Monaco," said Massa after posting the 16th quickest time of the session at the Principality. "Early this afternoon I had a spin going into the chicane and was very lucky not to hit anything.

"After that the car began to understeer a bit, but the balance was coming back and I was on what would have been my fastest lap when I made a little mistake in Tabac and the car started to slide. I hit the wall on the outside with the rear wheel, and then the front hit too and that was it for the day."

Teammate Nick Heidfeld was 15th quickest, the German admitting he was unhappy with the handling of his Petronas-powered C21 chassis.

"I'm not completely satisfied with the balance and grip of the car, which felt the way that the C20 did here last year," he said. "It was jumping about over the bumps and wasn't easy to drive. But we did a lot of laps, on our normal level of fuel for a first practice day, and have a direction to pursue for practice and qualifying on Saturday."