By Sam Cooper
May 24 2007

Much to the disappointment of Lewis Hamilton fans, he made his first ever mistake, on entering the Ste Devote corner the car experienced understeer, Lewis was unsuccessful in correcting this and went off into the barrier. He left the car disappointed as this crash finished his session, because of this he lost valuable track time which could leave him at a disadvantage going into Sunday’s race.

Much to the extreme disappointment of Lewis Hamilton fans, he made his first ever mistake, on entering the Ste Devote corner the car experienced understeer, Lewis was unsuccessful in correcting this and went off into the barrier. He left the car disappointed as this crash finished his session, because of this he lost valuable track time which could leave him at a disadvantage going into Sunday’s race.

The crash cause Lewis to abandon his car on the side of the road, the crash has left some modest damage to his car, the front suspension of his car was torn off in the crash, as well as damage to the nosecone and possibly the bargeboards maybe even the sidepods. The McLaren team shouldn’t have a problem repairing Lewis’s car as there is no testing tomorrow so Lewis should be back on track on Saturday without any problems.

Spain’s reigning world champion Fernando Alonso yet again highlighted his pace in the MP4-22, demolishing any suggestions of him losing his edge over the field. Kimi Räikkönen managed to get second fastest time, the time he achieved was just under 0.3 seconds behind Alonso’s. McLaren defiantly have the faster car at Monaco.

Hamilton’s crash wasn’t the only crash of the session, Red Bull driver David Coulthard started the ball rolling after crashing out with forty minutes to go. Super Aguri driver Anthony Davidson crashed three minutes later at Ste Devote, he would soon be joined by fellow countryman Lewis Hamilton. Another rookie crashed today as well, Adrian Sutil had a small incident at Portier, which left his Spyker with heavy damage all along the left side of his car.

The teams comments will be shown below.

Fernando Alonso will be upbeat heading into the qualifying session as he has proved into the world that he is the fastest driver at the circuit at the moment. “As always free practice was focused on testing the different tyre compounds made available to us by Bridgestone as well as finding the right balance with the set-up. We made good progress and the car feels good. Monaco is a unique circuit with the close barriers and also traffic – it’s very easy to get a flying lap ruined, but that is the challenge for everybody. I think we are in good shape, and with some more fine tuning during Saturday morning practice we are definitely looking forward to a competitive weekend.”

Despite his crash, Lewis Hamilton seemed happy with his practice even though he had a relatively minor crash “Today was the first time I ever drove a Formula 1 car around Monaco, and it was awesome. I have obviously had experience of the circuit from Formula 3 and GP2, but in a Formula 1 car it’s very different. I found out how unforgiving the track can be when I went off in the second session causing some damage to the car. I’m obviously sorry as there will be a bit of work for the guys but until then everything had been going smoothly, and we were able to set some competitive lap times. I had a very small braking error coming into St. Devote, and the tyres hadn’t built up enough grip so I made a tiny mistake, and the back of the car slipped a little and that was it – there is just no room for error in Monaco.”

Team boss Ron Dennis had this to say “As always the Monaco Grand Prix presents some unique challenges for both drivers and teams and today’s practice was no exception. Both our cars look competitive, and Fernando in particular was able to complete a lot of running. The problem with the starter motor in the first session and Lewis’s off in the second practice cost him some time, but we have plenty of data to analyse to put both drivers in the best possible position to fight for pole position.”

Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug had this to say about McLaren’s preparations for the grand prix. “Overall a good first day for us with a little bad luck on Lewis’s side who was caught out in the first corner on a fresh set of tires which obviously had not built up enough grip at this stage - however before he was strong as was Fernando. On Saturday and Sunday our goal is to be as competitive as today.”

Complete practice 2 times will be shown below.