Spaniard Fernando Alonso was the fastest in Thursday’s opening practice for the Monaco GP. The former world champion beat out Sebastian Vettel by a mere 0.073 seconds. It was a classic case of flattery to deceive as Briton Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa fought most of the session between each other. Their heated battle might have distracted the two drivers with 30 minutes left on the clock, both of them lost out to Alonso who blazed ahead with the quickest time of 1:15.927.
Vettel who was late in practice was second ahead of the likes of drivers Robert Kubica, Mark Webber, Felipe Massa, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton.
Jaime Alguersuari had been the first to set the quickest time of the morning of 1:21.675. However,Button slotted into the place behind Toro Rosso’s driver before overtaking him on his next lap.
Felipe Massa took third place, a little over two seconds behind the McLaren driver. The other drivers to complete the top eight after the first half an hour were Sebastian Buemi, Kobayashi, Nico Hulkenberg, Pedro de la Rosa and Vitaly Petrov.
The see-saw in the positioning continued throughout the day as Renault’s Robert Kubica finally managed to seal third place behind Vettel. Mark Webber was fourth with 1:16.382 while Felipe Massa was edged back into fifth spot with 1:16.517.
With the opening practice out of the way, the drivers however began to express their apprehensions over the traffic situation at Monaco. Jenson Button joined the growing list of drivers fearing that an increase in the number of traffic will result in a haphazard and fraught opening qualifying session. The fear has been voiced that with the inclusion of newcomers to the F1, Lotus, Virgin and Hispania Racing, drivers will be held up eventually due to increased traffic during the initial 20 minute session.
Button’s McLaren team-mate Hamilton had also said earlier in the week that the session “could be a disaster” while Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has also voiced concerns.
Reigning world champion believes that because of the uncertainty that increased traffic will bring to the race, luck will increasingly play a part through the session. He also believes that tempers may flare among the frontrunners in the aftermath of the unpredictable race.
He said, “We've got to hammer it round. I don't think we can back off, we have to stay on it because that might be the quickest lap we do. It will be tricky in Q1, but I'm sure we'll cope. A few of us will be angry and unhappy at the end of Q1, but we all have to deal with the same situation.
It's the same for all of us. Some of us will get lucky, some of us won't. You can't do much about it now. That's the way it is.”
"But there are going to be a lot of people asking for penalties I think.”
The traffic will certainly make a difference as Italian veteran Jarno Trulli said he will not care about the other drivers and that his only concern will be that on his own performance. Back in 2004, Trulli won his only second grand prix on the streets of the Principality and this time around he agrees with the assessment of the reigning F1 champion, Button.
Trulli said, “We're all going to have a lot of traffic. It's a question of luck because maybe a quicker car slows down in front of me whilst I'm on a quick lap and I'm hindered.”
"On the other hand maybe I'm on a quick lap, but not quick enough for a faster car which is probably four or five seconds (per lap) quicker than me. Neither way will work, but we will have to see what we can do to be free of traffic and do our job.”
"Anything can happen in Monaco, and it is the place where you can have more chance.
You can get one good lap by running round and round, and you get your lap in, but for us it's a bit more difficult to do that.
But we are all in the same boat. I don't have a solution, and I don't care. I will go out and try to get some free space, get my lap in and that's it.”
With Red Bull burning the rubber and the F1 season getting into the serious business of racing, it is hoped that something as trivial as traffic that afflicts our souls in normal cars on streets, does not afflict and influence the sport of racing.
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