The picture postcard setting of Monaco did not look as attractive as usual this morning, when the first practice session got underway under cloudy skies. It had actually rained briefly before the start of the first hour, but the track was dry enough not to demand rain tyres. Michael Schumacher was fastest for Ferrari in a time of 1.21.094 ahead of David Coulthard's McLaren. Behind these two came some names that don't usually figure in the top six: Jarno Trulli was third for Renault, followed by the Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello, Heinz-Harald Frentzen in the Arrows and Jacques Villeneuve in the BAR-Honda. The unforgiving Monaco barriers claimed their first victims in the shape of Pedro De La Rosa in the Jaguar and Kimi Raikkonen in the McLaren. In the DHL Jordan Honda camp, Takuma Sato was 17th in a time of 1.25.032, having completed 21 laps. Giancarlo Fisichella was 22nd, only doing three laps, the best being a 1.40.346.

Gary Anderson, Director of Race and Test Engineering commented, "Takuma spent his time trying to learn the track and did a very competent job. Giancarlo had a small problem with the engine anti-stall system, which disengaged the clutch after slowing down because of an accident ahead of him, and he couldn't select any gears.  It was nothing major, just an electronic glitch due to the circumstances, but then because the marshals pushed him into the pits he wasn't permitted to go out again."