2014 MONACO GP: LEWIS HAMILTON SET FASTEST TIME ON THURSDAY PRACTICE SESSIONS

Formula 1 world championship leader Lewis Hamilton edged team-mate Nico Rosberg to set the pace in the first free practice session for this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix. The Mercedes duo traded places at the top of the timesheet before Hamilton asserted himself with the fastest time of the session roughly halfway through. Rosberg was fastest of all in the first sector of the lap, but his later efforts to topple his team-mate fell short by less than half a tenth of a second. Daniel Ricciardo interloped in this personal battle by briefly going fastest in the early part of the session, and he was one of only two other drivers to ultimately lap below 1m19s.

Then rainstorm before FP2 left the circuit wet and slippery, with most teams unwilling to take the risk of running in the early part of the session. With the weather for the rest of the weekend expected to be dry, there was little opportunity for in-depth learning. The intermediate tyres, which proved to be versatile enough to continue performing effectively even when the track was rapidly drying, were used for the majority of laps.

In the last 10 minutes of the session the teams moved onto slick tyres, with most drivers going straight onto the supersoft. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso set quickest time in FP2 on the supersoft, while Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton had been slightly quicker in the dry conditions of FP1 on the soft tyre.

FIRST FREE PRACTICE

DRIVER	TEAM	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1. Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	1:18.271		32
2. Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG	1:18.303	+ 0.032	31
3. Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:18.506	+ 0.235	37
4. Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:18.930	+ 0.659	31
5. Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1:19.043	+ 0.772	33
6. Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:19.467	+ 1.196	31
7. Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:19.494	+ 1.223	31
8. Sergio Perez	Force India	1:19.666	+ 1.395	29
9. Kevin Magnussen	McLaren	1:19.789	+ 1.518	29
10. Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:19.856	+ 1.585	38
11. Jenson Button	McLaren	1:20.033	+ 1.762	35
12. Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber	1:20.118	+ 1.847	33
13. Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:20.207	+ 1.936	33
14. Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:20.241	+ 1.970	38
15. Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	1:20.260	+ 1.989	36
16. Felipe Massa	Williams	1:20.517	+ 2.264	25
17. Adrian Sutil	Sauber	1:20.736	+ 2.465	18
18.Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:20.914	+ 2.643	37
19. Jules Bianchi	Marussia	1:21.310	+ 3.039	27
20. Marcus Ericsson	Caterham	1:22.063	+ 3.792	40
21. Kamui Kobatashi	Caterham	1:22.492	+ 4.221	38
22. Max Chilton	Marussia	1:25.817	+ 7.546	7

SECOND FREE PRACTICE

DRIVER	TEAM	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1. Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:18.482		15
2. Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	1:18.901	+ 0.419	12
3. Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1:19.017	+ 0.535	15
4. Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	1:19.351	+ 0.869	14
5. Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:19.421	+ 0.939	9
6. Sergio Perez	Force India	1:19.668	+ 1.186	9
7. Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:19.712	+ 1.230	10
8. Jenson Button	McLaren	1:19.721	+ 1.239	16
9. Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:19.779	+ 1.297	11
10. Kevin Magnussen	McLaren	1:20.230	+ 1.748	16
11. Felipe Massa	Williams	1:20.394	+ 1.912	8
12. Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:20.622	+ 2.140	13
13. Adrian Sutil	Sauber	1:20.811	+ 2.329	8
14. Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:20.977	+ 2.495	7
15. Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber	1:21.467	+ 2.985	8
16. Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:21.700	+ 3.218	6
17. Kamui Kobatashi	Caterham	1:21.924	+ 3.442	6
18. Jules Bianchi	Marussia	1:21.937	+ 3.455	13
19. Max Chilton	Marussia	1:22.683	+ 4.201	13
20. Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG	1:22.862	+ 4.380	11
21. Marcus Ericsson	Caterham	1:23.164	+ 4.682	6
22. Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:45.509	+ 27.027	4