22/05/2014
NEWS STORY
The Monaco Grand Prix weekend began today with the first two practice sessions taking place around the streets of the principality.
P1 this morning saw Lewis top the timesheets after 32 laps, with Nico a close second, just 0.032s apart. A rain shower prior to P2 meant that running was limited with the pair completing a total of just 23 laps. Lewis finished second with a time just seven-tenths short of his P1 effort, whilst Nico focused on practice starts & pit stops. With a trouble-free day, the team can build on the progress tomorrow as set-up work continues ahead of the weekend.
Lewis Hamilton: The car is still a work in progress but it felt really good out there today. I had a good first session and was then really pleased to get those last few laps in the dry this afternoon which was a big plus. I'm feeling pretty set for Saturday, there is still some work to do but we have tomorrow to look into that and finish all our preparations for the weekend. I just love racing here; this track is one of the coolest ever, and it was great to see all of the fans here already enjoying themselves. It's such a classic race, and I've been trying to win here again since 2008, so I'm hoping this is the year as we have such a great car.
Nico Rosberg: That was a very good day. It seems that we are looking very quick here again, although our main competitors seems to be a little closer to us than in Barcelona. I still need to find my perfect set-up so there is still some work for us to do tomorrow to get ready for the weekend. The conditions weren't great this afternoon so I didn't take any risks as there was nothing to learn on the wet parts of the track. Now I'm looking forward to Saturday, but first to our team barbeque tonight!
Toto Wolff: We had a pretty normal first session before the wet weather and greasy track conditions limited our mileage this afternoon. Thursday in Monaco is all about staying out of the barriers and letting the drivers dial themselves into the circuit, so they can get comfortable with the car. We have two Monaco specialists with Nico and Lewis, so we know that if we do our job as a team, they will deliver out on track. I am sure that we will have a very tough challenge from our rivals this weekend and, like always in Monte-Carlo, there will be no margin for error in any area.
Paddy Lowe: It was a good first day for us in Monaco. We had a straightforward first practice session when we chose to run an offset schedule to take ourselves out of the dominant traffic. That worked well as we got good clear runs on both sets of tyres, working on the set-up and dialling the car into the track. P2 was obviously wet and only dried up enough to do some useful running in the final half hour. This meant we weren't able to do all our homework on tyre wear and long-run performance but we were at least able to do a run on the option tyre, to give the drivers a feel for the car in what will be the tyre of choice in qualifying. Overall, the car was working well today and the drivers' feedback was positive, but there is still more work needed to best prepare for qualifying on Saturday.
Check out our Thursday gallery, here.