Nico Rosberg Tops Practice Two in Monaco, but Brawn are Strong

After a decent morning session, could the Brawn boys finish the day off with a classy one-two? Or would good ol' Rosberg continue the 2009 tradition of finishing practice on top?

Thursday Practice, May 21, 2009.

Practice Two: 12 a.m.-13:30 p.m., local time (13 p.m.-14:30 p.m., British time)

Red Bull's issues may well prove to be advantageous for Brawn this weekend as both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber struggled in Practice One.  As Practice Two opened we heard that Webber was not even in his race suit yet as his Red Bull machine needed work done on it. The Australian did not begin for thirty minutes.

Much the same as in the first session, Sebastian Buemi was the first man to set a time (1:23:542).  Unfortunately for the downward spiralling BMW team, just seven minutes in, Robert Kubica’s Thursday went from awful to over.  The Pole's Sauber burst into flames and the subsequent yellow flags compromised any fast laps for the next few minutes.

It was therefore not too much of a shock when Jenson Button's first time only put him 12th (1:33:484).  Button took a few laps to improve on this position, but eventually put in a 1:19:215, good enough for second place.

Rubens Barrichello's first attempt stuck him in P17 (1:26:518), but much like his teammate, over the course of a few laps the Brazilian raised himself from 17th to 10th and then third (1:18:216).

After twenty minutes or so Fernando Alonso had become the man to beat with a great time of 1:17:723.  At this stage Button was down in P12 and Barrichello was in P6.

However, using the hard tyre, the Brazilian stuck his BGP 001 on pole, but just as I was copying his time down, the Spanish matador retook pole! (I did manage to get Barrichello’s time—it was 1:17:660.  Alonso was just 0.298s faster!).

With an hour remaining it was Heikki Kovalainen’s McLaren that was fastest.  Button had raised himself to P4 (1:17:500) but finished fifth with Barichello two places down in seventh.

The Brawns then put in a few decent laps, but neither driver made it past Barrichello’s fourth-place time of 1:16:819.

With just 53 minutes left we got to see Sebastian Vettel for the first time.  Whilst the German wiz kid drove well, he only managed to finish the day in P6.

With about 40 minutes left, Rubens was back out and driving very nicely.  The Brazilian seemed to have the measure of his team mate through the morning and the afternoon. Before long he had climbed his way up to second with a 1:16:567, but this wasn’t enough for Rubens.

With the soft tyres fitted, the veteran Brawn man shot around the streets and put in a time fit for pole (1:15:590).

By this stage I was beginning to worry about Jenson.  The Championship leader was in P12 and had only completed 16 laps.

We later found out that unfortunately Jens had made contact with a barrier and the mechanics decided, to be on the safe side, to remove the whole front of the car to make checks.  When Jenson did eventually return to the track he was held up by traffic (as seemed to be his problem all day).

The Brit dd manage to get himself from P13 to P7 (1:16:329) but unfortunately the soft tyres he was on were past their best; (thanks to the Brawn driver being held up in the crucial period where the tyres were at their Bridgestone Best).

With ten minutes left, Rubens was the man to beat and Jenson was still struggling in seventh with sub-par tyres.  Now it took him nearly all day, but that Friday (erm insert Thursday) specialist Rosberg finally found his way to pole (unfortunately at the expense of Rubens’ efforts).

The German then jostled with a speedy Hamilton for a couple of laps, but eventually finished the day on top (of course!).  By the end of it all Jenson had managed a 1:15:774 (P4) and Rubens finished in third.

I think on the whole today went very well for Brawn.  We all knew who would finish first and I think Lewis being in second doesn’t show a particular improvement in the McLaren (he just drove the arse off it).

If you remember last year, everyone hoped that the dismal RA108 would do better in Monaco…which it did to an extent!  I think the really good news is that the Brawn finished ahead of both Red Bull and Ferrari, who are their real threats at the moment. 

Rubens was the better of the two drivers, but I think Jenson was unlucky today.  Judging by today’s action, I think you’d need a pretty good excuse not to watch qualifying this Saturday! It should be a belter! 

1 Nico Rosberg          Williams-Toyota              1:15.243

2 Lewis Hamilton          McLaren-Mercedes      1:15.445

3 Rubens Barrichello          Brawn-Mercedes       1:15.590

4 Jenson Button          Brawn-Mercedes        1:15.774

5 Felipe Massa           Ferrari                       1:15.832

6 Sebastian Vettel            RBR-Renault                 1:15.847

7 Heikki Kovalainen           McLaren-Mercedes             1:15.984

8 Kimi Räikkönen         Ferrari                          1:15.985

9 Kazuki Nakajima             Williams-Toyota          1:16.260

10 Nelsinho Piquet             Renault                           1:16.286

11 Fernando Alonso             Renault                           1:16.552

12 Mark Webber            RBR-Renault                 1:16.579

13 Adrian Sutil                  Force India-Mercedes         1:16.675

14 Jarno Trulli                   Toyota                           1:16.915

15 Sebastien Buemi            STR-Ferrari                1:16.983

16 Sebastien Bourdais      STR-Ferrari                    1:17.052

17 Nick Heidfeld              BMW Sauber                  1:17.109

18 Timo Glock                       Toyota                          1:17.207

19 Giancarlo Fisichella      Force India-Mercedes  1:17.504

20 Robert Kubica               BMW Sauber          no time (only completed 2 laps)