Alonso sets fastest time in Monaco practice

Fernando Alonso delivered a warning to world championship rival Kimi Raikkonen today when he set the fastest lap in practice for the Monaco Grand Prix.

The world championship leader has faced a renewed threat from Raikkonen’s McLaren in the last two races and the Finn propelled himself into title contention with a win in Spain.

But Renault driver Alonso responded in Monaco today by setting a fastest lap of one minute 15.835 seconds in a busy second session.

Preparation is vital on the Principality streets and after 26 laps, Alonso’s best effort was 0.077 seconds clear of McLaren test driver Alex Wurz.

David Coulthard was an encouraging third on a track which has often provided an upset in recent years.

The Red Bull driver was within half a second of Alonso to offer hope of a fourth points finish of the season.

Giancarlo Fisichella was fourth in the other Renault while the McLaren pair of Juan Pablo Montoya and Raikkonen were fifth and sixth respectively ahead of tomorrow’s traditional day off.

World champion Michael Schumacher was a disappointing 11th today as Ferrari struggled. His team-mate Rubens Barrichello was 15th.

A hectic session began with an incident when Minardi’s Patrick Friesacher spun to interrupt his session.

With 17 minutes to go Christian Klien suffered a similar incident when he lost the rear of his Red Bull and clipped a barrier to knock off his front wing.

Coulthard showed his experience of the Monaco streets to move into the top three in his newly-decorated Red Bull car.

Alonso was the fastest man on track entering the final 10 minutes, although his time only just survived an attack from McLaren’s Wurz.

Felipe Massa suffered the biggest accident of practice with just a minute to go of the second session.

The Brazilian locked up his brakes into turn one, bounced across a kerb and slammed his Sauber into a tyre barrier sideways. After taking a moment to regain his composure, Massa leapt from the cockpit unhurt.

Montoya was fastest in this morning’s first session, although his time of 1min 17.152secs was considerably slower than the times this afternoon. Alonso was second quickest while Klien was third.