Monaco – Free Practice 2: Button Outpaces the Rain

If the sun still reigns in the Principality, it shines less than in the morning, and Nico Rosberg’s radio announces that showers could appear over the streets of Monaco. The drivers hurry out of the pits. Kobayashi is the first to trigger the stopwatch with a time of 1:20.617, immediately beaten by his teammate, Sergio Pérez, at 1:18.800. The Japanese driver reclaims his position on the next lap with a time of 1:17.504.

Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, and then Jenson Button successively take the lead on the timesheets, with the 2009 world champion completing a lap around the streets of Monaco in 1:17.095. Stuck in traffic – understand an HRT – Sergio Pérez sets the groundwork for the fastest time, but it’s Fernando Alonso who is the first to go under the 1 minute 17 mark. After briefly conceding to Pastor Maldonado, the Spaniard reclaims his position with a 1:16.661, but Jenson Button, the first driver to run on Super Softs, could upset the standings.

In the meantime, while the Brit records the best time in the first sector, Romain Grosjean is just a few hundredths off Alonso’s best time. Moments later, the driver of McLaren No. 3 logically takes the lead in the standings with a time of 1:15.746. On the following lap, Romain Grosjean improves his best time and positions himself between Button’s McLaren and Alonso’s Ferrari: the Geneva driver is the fastest on soft tires.

While he did not set a single timed lap during Free Practice 1, Kimi Räikkönen has been on track since the start of the session and is logically slightly behind in the hierarchy, as he takes time to get his bearings on a circuit where he won with McLaren in 2005.

After fifteen minutes of trials, following Jenson Button’s lead, the drivers begin to fit the Super Soft tires, including Kobayashi, Webber, Maldonado, Hamilton, Di Resta, Perez, Petrov, and Vergne. However, race control signals that the track is wet, and all the drivers return to the pits without having further tested the softest tires offered by Pirelli this weekend. The Principality then experiences an unusual silence during Grand Prix weekends which also feature the GP2 Series and World Series by Renault, the two breeding grounds for Formula One talent. At Caterham, Vitaly Petrov admits over the radio that he does not want to be the first to venture onto the track, at the risk of making a mistake on the wet surface.

At the start of the second half-hour of testing, Timo Glock (Marussia) is the first driver to break the silence, followed by Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen, all three on soft tires. Paradoxically, it’s the Finn who hinders the German approaching the Rascasse braking zone. Gradually, most drivers emerge from the garages, among them Jenson Button who, cautiously, prefers to venture onto the track with intermediate tires. Some drivers like Grosjean, Rosberg, Schumacher, Di Resta, Senna, Hülkenberg, Petrov, and Kovalainen take the opportunity to fit the Super Soft tires with red flanks. But once again, a light drizzle glosses the track, especially at the Massenet corner, forcing the drivers to return to the pits.

At mid-session, Jenson Button leads, on Super Soft tires, ahead of Romain Grosjean, Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso, Pastor Maldonado, Nico Rosberg, Mark Webber, Kamui Kobayashi, Michael Schumacher, and Sebastian Vettel. Kimi Räikkönen is in 19th place, with a time of 1:19.267, after completing 13 laps.

After a few minutes of silence, Kamui Kobayashi livens up the streets of Monaco by doing a lap on intermediate tires but doesn’t linger and returns to the pits at the end of his lap. The Toro Rosso drivers imitate the Japanese driver a few minutes later but stay on the track, likely to gain experience with wet track tires, as weather forecasts don’t rule out the possibility of rain on Saturday and Sunday. However, the two drivers from the Italian team lap over the minute-30 mark but are joined on the track by their counterparts from Marussia under the watchful eye of Michael Schumacher, who doesn’t seem in a hurry to get back on the track.

Senna, Hülkenberg, Räikkönen, and Grosjean return to the track, with intermediate tires. The Brazilian causes a yellow flag by making a mistake at the entrance of the high Mirabeau corner, while Timo Glock switches to rain tires on his Marussia MR01. A few minutes later, Pastor Maldonado imitates his teammate at exactly the same spot as Bruno Senna. The Venezuelan performs a half-spin in the runoff area to make the marshals’ job easier.

The commissioners have a lot of work at this part of the circuit, as Pérez misses his braking, while the top drivers take to the track, all on intermediate tires. Massa is also caught out at the Mirabeau braking point, without consequences, while Heikki Kovalainen, still at Mirabeau, ends his session on foot once again, his Caterham appearing to be stuck in reverse.

Under the checkered flag, the standings remain unchanged with Jenson Button, on Super Soft tires, leading ahead of Romain Grosjean, Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso, and Pastor Maldonado. Although he had a trouble-free session after missing the first free practice session, Kimi Räikkönen was unable to make up for lost time due to the rain that appeared in the Monaco sky.

Free Practice 2 Rankings of the 2012 Monaco Grand Prix: