Pedro happy with progress

"Well it's been a good session as the car was very good and had no problems throughout the practice," he said, after the afternoon half of the two-hour combined run.

The Spaniard was more concerned with getting mileage on the circuit, as it is notoriously punishing of mistakes and needs an uncompromising set up to maximise results.

"It's important in Monaco to do as many laps as possible to get the most out of the track time, and we made some changes to the car to prepare for qualifying," he acknowledged. He completed 39 laps over the course of the two hour-long sessions, with a best of 1m22.944, on only his second race at the track.

Pedro emphasised the necessity of qualifying well, as the narrow streets make overtaking difficult, and the closeness of the barriers to the track leaves no error unpunished.

"Qualifying is the most important thing here, so I think the main objective is to be quick in qualifying, as if you qualify well you have a chance to do well in the race as it's hard to overtake on this circuit," he admitted.

De La Rosa scored his first point of the season, the second of his F1 career, at the Nurburgring two weeks ago, and hopes to add to that at a circuit which should suit the handling of his Arrows-Supertec A21. Arrows have traditionally performed well at the Principality, with Mika Salo and Pedro Diniz 5th and 6th two years ago.