Monaco – Free Practice 2: Rosberg confirms, Grosjean ends up in the wall

After a first practice session on Thursday morning, the second one begins under the same weather conditions as in the morning. The weather seems nice and warm, which will allow the drivers to make the best use of their tires. During this second session, the twenty-four drivers have access to soft tires, and for the second time this season, to super-soft tires.

The Sauber drivers are the first on track, both on soft tires, and they immediately set their first times, with Esteban Gutierrez setting the first at 1:24.850 before Max Chilton and Jean-Eric Vergne complete their laps, faster than the Mexican driver. After a few minutes, it’s the two Williams drivers leading the charge before the top teams leave the pits.

Sergio Perez in his McLaren sets the fastest time for a few seconds, quickly relegated to second place by Kimi Räikkönen, who seems more at ease than in the morning. But the Finn himself is beaten by his teammate Romain Grosjean by three-tenths. Nico Rosberg also sets off to clock the fastest time, but the Frenchman from Lotus records an even faster time, showcasing his speed on the streets of Monaco.

The battle for the best time seems to be forming between the two Mercedes drivers who are in the lead after fourteen minutes, Romain Grosjean, and the two Ferrari drivers. However, the track is improving rapidly, allowing the drivers to consistently improve, and the rankings remain very unclear.

After twenty minutes, Jean-Eric Vergne and Kimi Räikkönen are the first to use the super-soft tires, while Sebastian Vettel has still not set any time. Despite the advantage provided by the tires, the Finn from Lotus is unable to set the fastest time, visibly hindered by understeer in the second sector.

The Finn finally manages to climb to the top of the timesheets, with barely an eight-thousandth advantage over Fernando Alonso, who set his time on soft tires. But he is quickly overtaken by Nico Rosberg by seven-tenths. In terms of tire wear, Mercedes does not seem to have major issues, even though the German team is helped by the slightly abrasive nature of the Monaco circuit. After thirty minutes, both Mercedes drivers are in the lead, while the first figures start to show. However, Romain Grosjean is the first to hit the wall at Sainte-Dévote. The French driver arrived a bit too fast at the end of the straight, and after locking up his tires, he hits the wall, breaking the left front wheel attachment and his front wing. The session is likely over for the Frenchman, to the detriment of the Lotus team, which ends up with only one driver, struggling this weekend.

After forty minutes, the red flag is deployed due to a damaged curb in turn 13, which is a very fast section. All drivers return to the pits while the marshals fix the problem in record time. After barely three minutes, the track is reopened for the drivers who can resume. The twenty-two participants set off for race simulations, while Fernando Alonso brushes the wall while avoiding a slow-moving Sauber driver just before the pit entry.

While there are thirty-seven minutes remaining, the Mercedes drivers are still leading ahead of the Ferrari drivers. Nico Rosberg is the only one who has gone under 1:15, while Mark Webber and Kimi Räikkönen are behind this quartet.

Twenty minutes before the end, all the drivers are in race simulation and the pace has considerably slowed down. However, the tires seem to be holding up adequately over the distance, which must be a relief for the teams after a difficult race in Spain.

At the end of this session, the standings remain unchanged with the race simulations of all the drivers.

Nico Rosberg is therefore ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton, the two Ferrari drivers, Mark Webber, and the two Lotus drivers. Romain Grosjean lost an hour of track time during this session after making a mistake in the first corner and was unable to set a time on super-soft tires. Sebastian Vettel is only ranked ninth behind Jenson Button’s McLaren.