If today’s practice times were carried over to Saturday afternoon, the Monaco Grand Prix would certainly have an unusual and interesting grid. Of course the times have to be taken with a pinch of salt as usual, given that different teams opted to run different fuel loads.

Jarno Trulli emerged quickest for Renault ahead of F1’s most experienced rookie, Alan McNish in the Toyota. David Coulthard completed the top trio just ahead of our own Giancarlo Fisichella, who is fourth and first of the Bridgestone runners. On a morale boosting day for Toyota, Mika Salo was fifth with Ralf Schumacher completing the top six.

Takuma Sato is seventeenth quickest having racked up 38 laps. His brief experience of this track when he drove two practice sessions in last weekend’s Historic Monaco GP paid off. The Japanese driver had a sensible day and unlike some of his colleagues, managed to stay out of trouble; no mean feat given the slippery track conditions.

There were several red faces today, including both Jaguar men, Felipe Massa in the Sauber, Alex Yoong in the Minardi, and Jenson Button in the Renault all modifying their cars against the unforgiving barriers. Kimi Raikkonen crashed his McLaren in the morning and was unable to drive in the afternoon as the damage was too extensive to repair.