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Alonso remains top for Session 2

Session 2 of Thursday free practice at Monaco was also an event-filled time. From the morning sessions, most of the teams had realised that although the super-soft compounds were fantastic for flying laps, they started to lose their effectiveness after a single lap meaning they are a must-have for qualifying, but not something many will want to put on the cars for an extended period during the race itself.

Michael Schumacher arrived just in time for the second practice session of the dat and quickly finds himself a spot in the sunshine where he can watch the session unfold on one of the big screens dotted around the track.

Hamilton puts in some early blistering laps, only to be beaten a few laps later by Polish driver, Robert Kubica. Kimi Raikkonen showed some of his old flair, executing a beautifully controlled slide at the Anthong Noghes corner, before finishing the lap 0.388 seconds down on Kubica.

Nick Heidfeld has problems mid-session with a misfire and his team informs him they are ‘working on it’ and that he doesn’t need to come in. Let’s hope they can get the problem sorted before the race on Sunday.

Coulthard sees some action in his Red Bull at the hairpin, tapping the barriers on his way through. The car is not seriously damaged but does have to return to the pits for some minor adjustments.

Davidson soon follows his countryman Coulthard’s lead and goes sideways into the tyre wall at Ste Devote. The car looks to be in tact, but has to be winched of the track, prematurely ending Davidson’s session.

It’s not the day to be a British driver as Hamilton soon copies Davidson and Coulthard and finds out the hard way that the walls and barriers are not very forgiving in Monaco, bending the front end of his MP4-22 and also having to retire from the session.

Sutil also joins in the action, crashing at Portier and bringing out another red flag. It seems that he clipped the inside of the corner, hit the kerb, flew across the track and into the barrier, managing to completely rip the left-front part of his car off.

There may be trouble ahead between the two firey characters of Fisichella and Massa. With four minutes left on the clock, Massa starts a hot lap. He manages a personal best in the second sector but has to back off slightly towards the end of the lap because of a slow car in front of him. Unfortunately, Fisichella was hot on Massa’s heels and nearly clouts the Brazilian as he passes him, on his way to leapfrogging Massa on the timesheets.

Ralf Schumacher also joins in the fun, crashing into the barriers at the exit of swimming pool. Similar to Sutil’s accident, Schumacher hit a kerb which bounced him into the barriers on the opposite side of the track.

The session ends with Alonso once again leading the time sheets, just ahead of Raikkonen, Hamilton, Trulli, Fisichella, Massa, Kubica, Rosberg, Webber and Coulthard.

There is the threat of rain tomorrow which could see even more drama on the streets of Monaco.

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