Free Practice 1 GP: Räikkönen ahead of Hamilton

Kimi Räikkönen beats Lewis Hamilton at the start of the free practice for the Monaco Grand Prix. The session was interrupted by a long red flag due to a dangerous manhole cover on the track.

The 16-minute stop occurred just before the testing hour. This problem happened at Sainte Dévote and was resolved quickly, but only 21 minutes of testing time remained.

Hamilton in a McLaren was the fastest before the interruption with 1’17”078. He then improved his time to 1’16”216 shortly after the session resumed.

But with nine minutes remaining, Räikkönen completed a lap in 1’15″948, pushing Hamilton back by 0.268 seconds.

Heikki Kovalainen was beating Räikkönen up to the second sector but could not maintain this advantage in the final sector and finished third.

Räikkönen’s teammate, Felipe Massa, is in the leading quartet. The two main teams are neck and neck. On Williams, Nico Rosberg beats Robert Kubica’s BMW in the final seconds to secure fifth place. The Pole is therefore sixth.

The double titleholder in Monaco, Fernando Alonso is in seventh place. His Renault teammate, Nelson Piquet, had a much harder time as he is only 18th, 1.5 seconds behind the Spaniard.

Behind, we find the Honda of Rubens Barrichello and the Red Bull of Mark Webber, while ‘the Monegasque specialist,’ Giancarlo Fisichella, achieves an excellent 10th place for Force India. The new Toro Rosso has shown promising signs, Sébastien Bourdais is 13th.

Jarno Trulli and Nick Heidfeld were the only drivers to experience major difficulties during this practice session. The Italian’s Toyota had its suspension break near the tunnel entrance. He had to park at the exit of the chicane.

Nick Heidfeld stopped at the Casino at about the same time. It seems that a problem at the rear of the F1.08 is the cause of this mishap.

Results of Free Practice 1 – 2008 Monaco GP