Brawn still confident for Monaco GP

Although the Bridgestone-shod Williams of Alex Wurz topped the times in free practice, the rest of the top 10 was dominated by the Michelin teams. Ferrari's best time, set by Michael Schumacher, was only good enough for 10th fastest over the two sessions.

But all that can quickly change at Monaco, according to technical director Ross Brawn.

"The thing about Monaco is that there are quite dramatic changes in the track between Thursday, Saturday and Sunday," he told reporters at Monaco. 

"The track surface changes enormously. So you are trying to hit the sweet spot on Sunday, and we hope we've got the tyres that will work properly on Sunday because they weren't working terribly well today. 

"The softs were a bit too soft and they were graining, and the hards had a low level of grip. But we're optimistic that as the track improves the tyres will start to work.

Brawn said there is a precedent for swings in form over Monaco GP weekends.

"A few years ago it was quite dramatic with Michelin. I think on the first day they were graining badly and we were one and a half or two seconds faster. On Saturday and Sunday they came back and won the race. You are trying to hit a target that is still to come.

"We've still got Saturday morning to have another look at the tyres. We had a look at the different tyres with Felipe today and he will do another comparison on Saturday. Michael just used one of the types today so he'll probably use the other type on Saturday morning."