Formula 1 2013 Monaco Grand Prix – Rosberg Reigns In Principality
Practice Nico Rosberg dominated the sunny if slightly cool practice sessions for Mercedes, taking first place in all three sessions with a car he felt comfortable with, though Hamilton was not as satisfied with the sister car, seeking better balance and one-lap pace. Alonso was pleased with Ferraris pace and worked through their programme on Thursday, taking second and third place in each, with Massa backing it up with fourth in both. Saturday however was much less positive, as Alonso only took fifth and Massa crashed heavily into the barriers at Ste Devote after an error, destroying his car. Red Bull looked a little out of sorts, and dealt with a KERS problem for Vettel on Thursday, though Webber was generally happy with their pace, especially as they showed much better on Saturday ahead of qualifying. Lotus certainly werent as comfortable as they had been in Spain, and Raikkonen felt there was plenty to work on, though he was much improved from where they had been at the start of FP1. Grosjean however, despite showing some excellent pace on the harder prime tyre, crashed in Ste Devote on Thursday, then clipped the barriers into the Nouvelle chicane on Saturday morning, followed by another, heavier accident at Ste Devote that badly damaged the car. McLaren stayed out of trouble and were generally happy with the car on the green track of Monte Carlo, even if they werent leading the pack. Force Indias Adrian Sutil was pleased to be back at Monaco, though clipped the barriers in FP1 and then binned the car through Massenet into Casino Square in FP3. Di Resta was more successful, though not showing excellent pace, and felt there were balance issues to work out for the race. Sauber took positives from their practice running, though didnt find any more pace than recent form. Gutierrez worked on learning the track for his first Monaco Grand Prix. Williams were very pleased with their pace as Maldonado revelled at one of his favourite circuits, taking sixth in FP1 and ninth in FP3. Bottas, as another rookie, spent time learning the challenging circuit just ahead of the back four. Torro Rosso trailed in behind the midfield, testing out different set ups, though both drivers felt there as much more pace to come from the car for qualifying and had some promising long runs. Marussias two Monaco debutants had uneventful sessions as they learnt the track, and though they were outdone on pace by the Caterham's and felt that their race pace would need work to get the best from their tyres come Sunday. Van der Garde enjoyed his debut at Monaco despite damaging his front wing and catching some traffic, and Pic was pleased with the progress the car made during the sessions on both compounds of tyre.