Wurz optimistic about Williams' chances

The Austrian believes that the changing characteristics of the Monte Carlo street circuit, which will get more rubbered in over the course of the weekend, will make the track more suitable to his team's Bridgestone tyres as the race meeting progresses.

"Today we worked mainly on race set-up, in order to get the car ready for Mark (Webber) and Nico (Rosberg) for Sunday," he said. "I went through my tyre choice and I have to say the way the circuit is progressing, it is coming to us just as it did at the Nurburgring, which is good.

"This makes me quite confident and positive that we will have a good weekend. I am also happy with my own performance today because I made no mistakes despite pushing quite hard and I am pleased that at the end of the day my name is at the top of the timesheets."

The only major blot on Williams' day was the time lost when a suspension component needed modifying in the second practice.

Technical director Sam Michael said: "We had a problem with a suspension component on Alex's car halfway through the afternoon session, so we decided to stop the race cars and make the same changes, which cost us about ten minutes of practice time.

"Everything else has gone to plan, including brakes and cooling although our set-up still needs some work, which we will study now."

Mark Webber still believes there was plenty of work ahead for the team, however, in their bid to repeat their podium finish from last year.

"We got through our programme despite everybody being interrupted in the second session with the red flags but it is the same for everyone. We've got a fair bit on to try and find a better balance and some more pace, but it was a normal and uneventful Monaco Thursday for us, which is good."

Teammate Nico Rosberg added: "Driving on this street circuit in a Formula One car is an amazing experience. I completed my first day unscathed, despite touching the barriers slightly on one occasion, which marked my tyres, but this is the best way to make a mistake here.

"Today has gone okay and we have improved quite a lot during the two sessions, thanks to a number of changes we have made. We now have an extra day without track running to consider all the information we have collected and get ready for qualifying."