Alonso sets Monaco pace as Ferrari take fight to Red Bull
The Spaniard’s lap of one minute 14.904 seconds was 0.109secs clear of Nico Rosberg who was second in the Mercedes.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel set the third fastest time with Alonso’s Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa fourth.
Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher was fifth, while McLaren pair Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button came seventh and ninth.
“We weren’t at the top of the times but the car felt good and I love being on this track,” said Hamilton.
“We’ve made some good step forwards with the set-up. I think that we’re looking pretty good for the weekend.
“Saturday is going to be tough, but I hope the weather is going to be good for us and really we just have to keep our heads down and make sure we do our homework.”
“The other teams who have a certain top-speed advantage on other tracks at the moment do not have this advantage here, so the whole field comes a bit closer together,” said Schumacher who has won at Monaco five time.
The impressive pace of the Red Bull cars has dominated qualifying so far this season, but Monaco’s tight street circuit presents a different challenge.
The difficulties of Formula 1’s slowest circuit were exacerbated by changeable weather conditions, with much of second practice session taking place under overcast skies on the edge of the Mediterranean.
Ferrari switched both of their drivers onto super soft tyres after 30 minutes of the session in order to get some running in before the expected rainfall.
That move reaped immediate dividends when Felipe Massa went quickest with a lap of one minute 15.585secs, the Brazilian then improved his own effort, before being usurped by his Ferrari team-mate.
After taking top spot Alonso stayed in the groove and produced an impressive lap of one minute 14.904secs to clock the fastest time.
“Overall, we found our car very good from the beginning, very easy to drive but qualifying, everything will be very close as we saw today, it was three tenths of a second over seven or eight cars, so we can’t afford any mistakes – we need to be perfect on Saturday,” said Alonso.
Williams’ Nico Hulkenberg, Force India’s Tonio Liuzzi, Vettel, Webber and Kubica all led the way, Kubica particularly impressive for Renault as he pushed hard to explore the limits of the famous circuit.
Kubica was seventh fastest, as only 0.716 secs separated the front-running Alonso from last week’s Spanish Grand Prix winner Mark Webber, who was 10th quickest in his Red Bull.
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