Grosjean leads the way in Monaco

Romain Grosjean got his weekend under way in fine style by claiming the fastest lap in this morning’s free practice session in Monaco, leading for almost the entire session from Dani Clos and local hero Stefano Coletti.

The Frenchman improved his times throughout free practice before setting a best lap of 1:22.368, more than a second faster than his closest rivals in a session which saw a number of yellow flags, and one red flag, in the busy 30 minute period.

Luca Filippi led his rivals out on track when the lights went green, taking advantage of the clear track to set the early pace, but Grosjean claimed the top spot on the timing sheets next time round and stayed there until the end.

The red flag was shown for an accident between Charles Pic and Luiz Razia, with the Addax driver slow through the swimming pool and the AirAsia man less so, losing a piece of his front wing in the process and giving the marshals a souvenir to collect.

With time running down, the field was desperate to improve, but a few of them pushed too hard: Fabio Leimer spun at the Mirabeau and Filippi spun at Casino Square, with both men doing a remarkable job to stay off the walls, while Davide Valsecchi clipped the wall at Anthony Noghes and lost his rear wing in the process, just as the chequered flag was shown.

Behind the top three were Filippi, Valsecchi, Jules Bianchi, Johnny Cecotto and Esteban Gutierrez: with a few hours to go the relative peace of the free practice is likely to be shattered in what promises to be an intense qualifying session this afternoon.