Monaco, FP2: Rosberg stays on top as Grosjean shunts

Rosberg fastest again in second practice

By Franck Drui

23 May 2013 - 15:45
Monaco, FP2: Rosberg stays on top (...)

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg turns in another dominant performance to top the FP2 timesheet in Monaco.

After being quickest on the soft tyre in the morning, Mercedes reinforced their qualifying credentials on the supersoft tyre in Thursday afternoon’s second free practice session.

Nico Rosberg was once again fastest, his time of 1:14.759 being three-tenths quicker than that of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Behind Hamilton came the Ferrari duo of Fernando Alonso, third, and Felipe Massa. Mark Webber was fifth for Red Bull with the Lotus pair Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean behind him. Jenson Button was eighth for McLaren, Sebastian Vettel finished the day in ninth position in the second Red Bull and Paul di Resta rounded out the top ten for Force India.

It was a session that featured heavy mileage from most drivers. Hamilton managed 51 laps with most others in the 40s. Grosjean was the exception, his afternoon ended with just ten laps on the board. The French driver slammed into the barriers at Ste Devote, ripping the front-left corner off his Lotus. As the the Frenchman walked back to the pitlane, the session was briefly halted. The Lotus was winched off the track, while unrelated damage to the kerbs in the swimming pool section was also repaired. At that point Rosberg had already set his fastest time.

The session had started on soft tyres. Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne, fifteen minutes into the session, was the first to switch to the supersofts. When the session was halted he was one of a handful using the red-banded rubber – though after the short hiatus it become the tyre of choice for the majority.

The field then concentrated on long runs, many of which lasted until the chequered flag and, as drivers concentrated on evaluating their tyres, no-one challenged Rosberg’s time. The upshot of the session was the discovery that Pirelli’s 2013 supersoft is capable of completing over thirty laps of the Circuit de Monaco.

Pos.DriverTeamTimeGapLaps
01 Nico Rosberg Mercedes AMG 1:14.759 46
02 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG 1:15.077 +0.318 51
03 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:15.196 +0.437 38
04 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:15.278 +0.519 39
05 Mark Webber Red Bull Renault 1:15.404 +0.645 42
06 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus Renault 1:15.511 +0.752 39
07 Romain Grosjean Lotus Renault 1:15.718 +0.959 10
08 Jenson Button McLaren Mercedes 1:15.959 +1.200 40
09 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Renault 1:16.014 +1.255 33
10 Paul di Resta Force India Mercedes 1:16.046 +1.287 43
11 Adrian Sutil Force India Mercedes 1:16.349 +1.590 44
12 Sergio Perez McLaren Mercedes 1:16.434 +1.675 41
13 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber Ferrari 1:16.823 +2.064 43
14 Pastor Maldonado Williams Renault 1:16.857 +2.098 41
15 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber Ferrari 1:16.935 +2.176 45
16 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso Ferrari 1:17.145 +2.386 38
17 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso Ferrari 1:17.184 +2.425 43
18 Valtteri Bottas Williams Renault 1:17.264 +2.505 47
19 Jules Bianchi Marussia Cosworth 1:17.892 +3.133 41
20 Charles Pic Caterham Renault 1:18.212 +3.453 44
21 Max Chilton Marussia Cosworth 1:18.784 +4.025 41
22 Giedo Van der Garde Caterham Renault 1:19.031 +4.272 31

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