Jenson Button tops unexpected wet Monaco practice

Friday 25th May, 2012 12:36am
Author: SpeedCafe ©

Jenson Button

Jenson Button topped the Thursday times at Monaco before an unexpected rain shower halted the improving times.

The McLaren driver set a 1:15.746s on Pirelli’s super-soft tyre, and could not be beaten as rain after 30 minutes of the session spoiled what looked to be an entertaining battle at the top of the time sheets.

Compared to his rivals, Button’s time was impressive, but the shower meant that he was the only driver to get the full benefit of the super-soft compound on a dry track.

That lap may prove to be the last dry lap of the weekend, with forecasters predicting showers on Saturday, and possible showers on Sunday.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso set the pace in the opening session, plus the fourth fastest time in the second. His team-mate Felipe Massa was also strong in both sessions, signalling a potential return to race-winning form for the famous team.

Neither of Australia’s drivers Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) and Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) made any significant impressions on either sessions, with Webber’s Practice 2 result the best of pair.

As is tradition at Monaco, Grand Prix teams will rest tomorrow (Friday) ahead of Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race.

Practice 1

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Time/Retired	Gap	Laps
1	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:16.265		22
2	10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:16.630	0.365	17
3	15	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:16.711	0.446	19
4	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:16.747	0.482	12
5	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1:16.760	0.495	20
6	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:16.843	0.578	19
7	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:17.038	0.773	21
8	3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:17.190	0.925	13
9	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:17.222	0.957	14
10	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:17.261	0.996	18
11	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:17.413	1.148	14
12	12	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:17.631	1.366	18
13	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:18.106	1.841	14
14	17	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Ferrari	1:18.209	1.944	25
15	16	Daniel Ricciardo	STR-Ferrari	1:18.252	1.987	28
16	11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:18.302	2.037	16
17	19	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	1:18.617	2.352	20
18	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	1:19.039	2.774	20
19	21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	1:19.341	3.076	16
20	23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	1:20.838	4.573	26
21	25	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	1:20.895	4.630	18
22	24	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	1:21.638	5.373	9
23	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	1:22.423	6.158	15
24	9	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	No time		1

Practice 2

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Time/Retired	Gap	Laps
1	3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.746		17
2	10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:16.138	0.392	19
3	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:16.602	0.856	21
4	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:16.661	0.915	23
5	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1:16.820	1.074	20
6	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:17.021	1.275	15
7	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:17.148	1.402	23
8	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:17.153	1.407	22
9	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:17.293	1.547	11
10	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:17.303	1.557	21
11	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:17.375	1.629	19
12	11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:17.395	1.649	21
13	19	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	1:17.655	1.909	18
14	12	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:17.800	2.054	25
15	15	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:18.251	2.505	24
16	21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	1:18.440	2.694	25
17	17	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Ferrari	1:18.522	2.776	22
18	16	Daniel Ricciardo	STR-Ferrari	1:18.808	3.062	26
19	9	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:19.267	3.521	25
20	24	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	1:19.309	3.563	29
21	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	1:20.029	4.283	13
22	25	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	1:20.240	4.494	21
23	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	1:20.631	4.885	12
24	23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	1:20.886	5.140	10