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Kimi
Raikkonen and Felipe Massa occupy the second row of a
"virtual" grid at the end of the first two free practice
sessions, held as usual at Monaco on a Thursday. The
Finn and the Brazilian ended the day in third and fourth
places respectively, while McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis
Hamilton was quickest, ahead of the Williams-Toyota of
Nico Rosberg.
In fifth place
was the second McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen with Robert
Kubica sixth for BMW-Sauber. Last year's Monaco winner,
Fernando Alonso posted the seventh best time despite
removing his rear wing after a collision with the ever
present barriers. In fact, by Monaco standards, most of the
drivers seemed to be on best behaviour today, with not too
many red flags required, although one came out to stop the
morning session when a drain cover in the track surface came
loose and had to be re-fixed into place.
At some circuits, the drivers complete a certain number of
laps to get their work done and then spare the car for the
rest of the weekend, but here in the Principality, where of
course there is never any testing because the race is run on
public roads, everyone goes for maximum track time, and
between them the two Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers
racked up an amazing 131 laps, Kimi doing just ten laps
short of Sunday's 78 lap race distance.
The general consensus is that the Prancing Horse is
definitely in better shape than it was here twelve months
ago, even if a familiar problem of getting soft tyres to
perform instantly for a quick lap is still causing some
head-scratching for the Scuderia's engineers. But one
advantage of the strange Monaco timetable, with track action
taking place on Thursday and Saturday, is that the team now
has tonight and all of Friday to work on the cars and come
up with a plan to improve the situation. Another unique
Monaco tradition that takes place tonight is a dinner for
the entire team on a beautiful yacht in the harbour, hosted
by the Scuderia's long term partner, Philip Morris.
"A busy day of free practice on the streets of the Monaco
Principality: in the hands of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe
Massa, the F2008 racked up over four hundred kilometres,
with no technical problems arising on either car. "These
three hours on track can be described as pretty useful,"
commented Gestione Sportiva Team Principal, Stefano
Domenicali. "We gathered a lot of data which we now have to
analyse to try and be as well prepared as possible for
qualifying and Sunday's race. In particular, we have to try
and improve our performance on the first lap, especially
with the softer tyre, an aspect with which we struggled a
bit today, compared to our main rivals.
"It will be a
very tough weekend, which is in fact just what we had
expected. There are so many variables to take into account:
apart from the usual ones there will be the weather to
consider, as the forecast is for it to worsen over the
weekend, with a strong chance of rain. There is much work to
do in the coming hours."
Felipe Massa: "Our rivals are very strong here, even
allowing for the unknown factor of fuel loads. I wasn't able
to do a good lap on the soft tyres, but things went well on
the hard ones: we have to study the situation calmly and try
to get all the details right. If we compare today with the
same time last year, I think we have made a step forward. We
have changed the settings on the car compared to the past
and now we hope we will see the benefits of this choice."
Kimi Raikkonen: "I would say this was a normal day of
free practice. We went quite well, especially on used tyres
in the morning. But we struggled a bit to do a time on new
tyres in the second session and now we have to look at the
data carefully to understand how to improve. There is plenty
of time to do that and so I am not particularly worried, at
least at the moment. A wet race? It would make matters
complicated but it would be the same for everyone."
Luca Baldisserri: "We were expecting a particularly
difficult weekend and these three hours of free practice
have not give us any reason to change our minds. While it is
true that our preparations for this race have produced some
results, it is equally true that our main rivals have not
been twiddling their thumbs either and therefore have turned
up here in very competitive shape. Our weak point today was
mainly to do with performance on new tyres, especially on
the softer tyre. We must carefully study the day and try and
make the necessary changes so as to be competitive at the
highest level. On top of that, we must also keep a careful
eye on the weather, which could be the decisive factor for
Saturday's qualifying and especially in Sunday's race."
Free practice - First session
K. Raikkonen: 1st 1.15.948 26 Laps Chassis 270
F. Massa: 4th 1.16.292 26 Laps Chassis 267
Weather: air temperature 23 °C, track temperature 28/31 °C,
sunny.
Free Practice - Second session
K. Raikkonen: 3rd 1.15.572 42 Laps Chassis 270
F. Massa: 4th 1.15.869 37 Laps Chassis 267
Weather: air temperature 22 °C, track temperature 37/36 °C,
sunny.
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