So, after today’s practice sessions at the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix, what can we tell from them?
Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello finished top in the first practice, while Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was second. The McLaren duo of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen finished third and fourth, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen fifth, and Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg sixth and seventh. The championship leader, Brawn GP driver Jenson Button, finished eighth. Of the other teams who are going well, Red Bull only managed 10th and 14th, but the biggest shock was Toyota – managing to take the last two spots. Heavy fuel load, certainly, but 19th and 20th? They’ve got some thinking to do.
In the second practice, Rosberg finished yet another session as top driver, with Hamilton second. The two Brawn cars of Barrichello and Button were third and fourth, and Massa was fifth. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was sixth, Kovalainen seventh, and Raikkonen eighth. Of the other cars, the other Red Bull – driven by Mark Webber – finished 12th, while Toyota once again struggled, finishing 14th and 18th.
Although always dangerous to assign anything to practice sessions, here’s what I think we can glean from these two. Both McLaren and Ferrari seem to have taken steps forward, with their finishes respectively of: McLaren; third, fourth, second, seventh; and Ferrari; second, fifth, fifth, eighth. Toyota appear to have slipped, unless they were carrying extremely heavy fuel loads. Brawn, of course, have remained right up there.
