Dirty Boulevard - Monaco Gp, Thursday 24 May 2012

Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean took to the track for the first practice sessions on the streets of Monaco in mixed conditions today. A dry and warm morning session was followed by a mixed dry and wet afternoon session. Both drivers used new helmet designs today – images can be downloaded below.

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director - Technical programme notes

• In FP1 we conducted evaluations of our Monaco setup and gained initial data of Pirelli’s soft compound.
  
• Kimi completed just his initial installation lap in FP1 as he found the Monaco steering setup not to be to his liking.
  
• FP2 saw lower fuel running than usual, focusing on qualifying specification performance of the soft and super soft compound tyres when the track was sufficiently dry. We also ran with the intermediate tyres on both cars.
  

What we learned today:

• Our Monaco specification setup works well in both dry and damp conditions.
  
• The changed steering setup for Kimi was more to his liking for FP2.
  

Kimi Räikkönen, E20-03

Free practice 1: No time set, installation lap completed

Free practice 2: P19, 1:19.267, 25 laps

Kimi: “It’s good to be back in Monaco even if we missed some running today. The steering wasn’t to my liking so the team changed it for me. It’s something you change for Monaco and there’s no way of knowing what it will be like beforehand. The car felt good in the second session, though it was obviously pretty slippery when the track was wet. I would have liked to have had more time in the car, but Monaco’s a track I know pretty well and it hasn’t changed much over the years. Let’s see what happens tomorrow.”

Romain Grosjean, E20-04

Free practice 1: P2, 1:16.630, 22 laps

Free practice 2: P2, 1:16.138, 19 laps

Romain: “I think the car is suiting the track pretty well and I love Monaco, it’s good to be here and it’s nice to see so many fans. The car was looking good this morning and this afternoon – we are working in a good direction. Unfortunately it was a bit wet this afternoon and we couldn’t do all the programme we wanted to achieve but as we have a good baseline it shouldn’t be such a big deal. Let’s see what the weather will be like tomorrow and what we can achieve. I think that we are looking good in both conditions.”

James Allison, Technical Director:

“We’re happy with today’s performance as we came here with a certain amount of trepidation about whether our cars would be competitive. It was a disappointment to have missed the first session whilst we changed the steering setup on Kimi’s car, but he’s an old enough trooper to get himself up to speed on Saturday. The pace shown by Romain in both sessions was certainly encouraging. All the Monaco upgrades seem to be working well and the E20 is pretty happy around what is a very unique track.”