Hamilton owns up to practice error

The McLaren driver locked up the rear tyres under braking for Ste Devote and slid into the barriers - damaging his car and forcing him to sit out the second half of the session.

But rather than curse his misfortune after seeing teammate Fernando Alonso dominate both practice sessions, Hamilton has simply owned up to the error.

"I'm obviously sorry as there will be a bit of work for the guys," said the world championship leader. "Until then everything had been going smoothly, and we were able to set some competitive lap times.

"I had a very small braking error coming into Ste Devote, and the tyres hadn't built up enough grip so I made a tiny mistake. The back of the car slipped a little and that was it - there is just no room for error in Monaco."

Alonso was obviously delighted with his session-topping times in both practices.

"We made good progress and the car feels good," said the Spaniard. "Monaco is a unique circuit with the close barriers and also traffic - it's very easy to get a flying lap ruined, but that is the challenge for everybody.

"I think we are in good shape, and with some more fine tuning during Saturday morning practice we are definitely looking forward to a competitive weekend."

Despite the time Hamilton lost in second practice because of his crash, and in the latter stages of first practice after a starter motor problem, team boss Ron Dennis is hopeful of seeing both his drivers fight for pole position on Saturday.

"Both our cars look competitive, and Fernando in particular was able to complete a lot of running," he said.

"The problem with the starter motor in the first session and Lewis's off in the second practice cost him some time, but we have plenty of data to analyse to put both drivers in the best possible position to fight for pole position."