Spyker rue troubled day at Monaco

Christijan Albers' running in the morning session was cut short after he suffered an engine problem after just five laps.

The Dutchman enjoyed a better afternoon session, completing 35 laps on his way to the 21st quickest time.

His teammate Adrian Sutil, making his first appearance in Monaco in an F1 car, also had engine-related problems in the morning.

In the afternoon, the German crashed at Portier after covering 29 laps, an incident that left him at the bottom of the times.

"A difficult first day for both cars," said Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer. "We lost most of the morning session on Christijan's car with the engine problem and had to change it and also had an engine-related issue on Adrian's car, so he also missed out on some running.

"In the second session we were able to get some more work done and evaluate different tyres, but unfortunately Adrian went off on his first run with the softer tyre.

"Christijan also made a mistake on his fastest lap on the softest tyres so it was a difficult day all round. But on the positive side, I think there is a lot more to come from the car and we look to be very close to group in front. We just hope we can get it right on Saturday."