Fernando Alonso continued his good work in the morning by topping P2 this afternoon. Fernando was fastest in both P1 and P2 on a good days work for Ferrari.

Felipe enjoyed a much better running today too, although finishin 4th, behind Alonso, Massa much prefers the softer tyres for his style of racing.

A few spots of rain towards the end of second practice and the usual traffic problems made life especially tricky for the drivers.

With rain forecast for the second half of the session most of the cars were on-track within minutes of practice starting.

When the rain began to fall it was only very light but it was enough to catch a few drivers out. Jaime Alguersuari lost control of his Toro Rosso on his way down to the chicane and only an impressive feat of car control kept it out of the barriers.

The most glamorous (and expensive) venue of the F1 season is here. The track was lit in brilliant sunshine and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso headed the time sheet in practice one.



The session began quietly, with no one keen to venture out too early on the dusty streets, but lap times soon began to tumble once the action began in earnest around the half-hour mark, and Alonso’s fastest time was some 1.3s inside the benchmark set by Rubens Barrichello in the corresponding session last year.

Not too much drama during the first practice as drivers suffered from busy tracks but only two incidents to note. Karun Chandhok only managed six laps before spinning the HRT at Massenet. He touched the barrier and his session ended there. Kamui Kobayashi ended his first F1 practice at Monaco limping into the pits with bent suspension and no front wing. The damage was caused when he cut across the kerb at the swimming pool and went flying into the barrier on the outside of the corner.

Round 6 of the Formula 1 World Championship sees the teams set up camp at the most famous, glamorous and charismatic venue on the calendar – Monte Carlo. However, the street race’s status as the sport’s jewel in the crown comes at a price, namely that logistically it is the hardest to deal with. This has always been the case for a variety of reasons: the fact the paddock and pit facilities, despite improvements, are still the most basic of the year, the length of the race weekend, which stretches from Thursday to Sunday, the fact that additional spare parts are required because the risk of damaging the cars is so much higher on the twisty street circuit and a myriad of other minor irritations. However, this year, these difficulties have been compounded in that the race follows on just one weekend after the Spanish Grand Prix and with free practice starting on Thursday, that makes it the shortest back-to-back in the history of the sport. When the calendar first appeared, the Scuderia’s logistics staff predicted a difficult time and that has indeed proved to be the case.

The majority of the team and of course, all the equipment, travelled by road from the last race and although the distance is not that great the amount of work involved is much more intense than it would be at some of the back-to-backs outside Europe. In those cases, equipment and cars simply have to be packed into boxes and they are delivered to the next venue, where the only set up work involves building the interior of the pit garages. However, here all the trucks have to be got into position and the motorhome set-up crews, independent of the actual team members, have to rebuild the entire team “village” in the space of just thirty six hours. Fortunately, the reappearance of the infamous Icelandic ash cloud did not impact on the team, as those engineers who were supposed to return to Maranello in between races, were able to take their scheduled flights, carrying out the post-race debrief on Monday in the factory, before driving to the Principality on Tuesday. The conclusions from that debrief were that the actual race result was satisfactory as was the fact the overall performance of the F10 had improved in Spain, when compared to the previous race, however, that performance level was still inadequate when compared to the quickest cars, at least in circumstances similar to those of Barcelona. The one weak point in the package that stands out is the lack of downforce. Here in Monaco, the situation could be better, chiefly because of the tyre choices provided by Bridgestone, namely the Super Soft and Medium.

The performance difference to the fastest cars in Barcelona was less significant in the race than in qualifying but the Monaco race result depends even more than others on Saturday’s grid-deciding session. This race has always been described as a lottery and it will be even more of a truism this weekend, given that on a track that barely seemed to have room to accommodate twenty cars, it now has to find space for twenty four. Q1 on Saturday afternoon will be really problematic in terms of traffic. And in the race, although you can plan your pit stop strategy around the traffic, if a driver gets caught behind slower cars, it will ruin his race, especially when considering how early the backmarkers will start to be lapped, which in Barcelona was a factor as early as the 14th lap.

From the technical point of view, the two F10 cars were prepared at the Catalunya Circuit after the Spanish Grand Prix and the only change in terms of specification is that they will not be fitted with the blown rear wing, used for the first time in Barcelona, as the low speed Monaco circuit means the system has no great value, as maximum downforce is required at all times. Setting up an F1 car to drive on roads not designed for racing is not straightforward and in the past two years, the Ferrari engineers adopted a different approach, running the car with softer settings than in the past, with positive results. As for the cars themselves, this race usually involved building bespoke “Monaco-spec” machines, however the new regulations forbid making such major changes, so apart from different downforce levels, the only significant change is to the steering, giving the driver more leverage and a tighter turning circle to cope with corners such as the hairpin.

Although a Prancing Horse has been first past the chequered flag a total of eight times here, in more recent years, Lady Luck has chosen not to look kindly on our efforts and Ferrari’s last Monaco victory dates back to 2001. And those most heartbreaking podium positions, second and third have featured in our Monaco history no less than seventeen and twenty one times respectively. As for our current drivers, Fernando Alonso has won twice with his previous teams, in 2006 and 2007, while Felipe Massa has one third place podium finish to his name.Even when the team was the dominant force over the season, winning in the Principality has proved impossible, either due to bad luck such as the 2004 collision in the tunnel between Montoya and Schumacher, or down to the weather such as in 2008 when Massa had started from pole. In the past decade, the Scuderia has set more fastest Monaco race laps than any other, including last year, when generally the car was not so competitive, even if Raikkonen started the ’09 race from the front row.

Stefano Domenicali says Ferrari will investigate the reasons for Felipe Massa’s lack of pace and aim to provide him with a car he feels more confident driving for Monaco, after the Brazilian’s recent struggles continued at Barcelona.

Since impressing on his return to Formula 1 following his long injury lay-off at the season-opener in Bahrain Massa has failed to match new team-mate Fernando Alonso’s pace, the Spaniard outqualifying him at the subsequent four grands prix.

The gap between the pair increased at the Spanish Grand Prix as Massa trailed the sister car by 0.6s in qualifying before finishing sixth in the race to Alonso's second.

On Sunday evening Massa attributed his struggles to the harder compound of tyres that have been in use since Bahrain, adding that he had experienced a lack of grip around the Circuit de Catalunya all weekend.

Ferrari team boss Domenicali says the grip issues were something both drivers complained about from practice onwards in Spain – but acknowledged it needed to look at how it had been running Massa's car and try to resolve the difficulties.

Asked by itv.com/f1 columnist James Allen if he was worried about Massa general competitiveness and whether he feared a slump in form, Domenicali replied: “No, I’m not concerned to be honest because what we have to do on our side is to make sure the car is the one that he feels confident driving.

“I would say for the first time this weekend this has not been the case because he started to complain about the level of grip of the car since the beginning. It never happened [before that].

“To be honest also Fernando, it was the when first weekend he was not so happy about it since the beginning.

“But this week it is very important to go back and see the work that has to be done mainly around Felipe’s car in terms of set-up, in terms preparation, in terms of downforce level because if we give him a good car he’s very good and he’s stronger, I’m pretty sure about it.

“So this is on our side to give him the maximum package that we can.”

Speaking after a race in which he spent most of tucked up in the turbulent air behind the battling Schumacher and Button, a frustrated Massa said he had particularly struggled in the final sector of the lap.

"It was a difficult race. I got a good start but then I was always behind other cars and I never managed to run at a constant pace,” the Brazilian said.

“Once again today, the main difficulty was a lack of grip, especially in the third sector: every time it looked as though I might close on Button, he managed to get away from me over some sections of the track.

Another somewhat controversial decision by the FIA to first ALLOW the F-Duct, but now teams agree to ban from next year (thus wasting millions in this year's development) Much like the Double Diffuser issue which again is being banned from next year (again wasting millions by developing the system in the first place).

Surely both of these systems should of automatically been banned in the first place by the FIA to stop teams wasting money, in this tough economic timeswhere F1 is trying to cut costs?

Formula 1 teams have voted in favour of a ban on F-Ducts for next season, after teams rejected a plea by McLaren not to outlaw the blown wing concept.

McLaren stole a march on the opposition at the start of this season by introducing the F-Duct onto its car - which provides a straight-line speed advantage through drivers diverting air to help stall the rear wing.

Rivals teams have worked hard to try and copy the system, but have found difficulties incorporating it because chassis have to be homologated for this season.

Although Sauber, Ferrari, Williams and Mercedes GP have managed to run blown rear wings already, a majority of teams were concerned that designs could get out of control for next season – both on cost and safety grounds.

During the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) meeting in Barcelona on Sunday morning the matter was brought up, and the majority of teams voted in favour of it being outlawed for 2011, even though McLaren tried to convince teams not to ban it.

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner, whose team is still looking into the concept, thought that safety aspects were a big concern.

"It is a clever piece of engineering and hats off to the guys who invented it, but some of the solutions this weekend look a bit marginal when you see drivers driving with finger tips and no hands," he explained. "So I think there is a safety issue and a cost issue to take into account."

Mercedes GP CEO Nick Fry told AUTOSPORT that he supported the ban on F-Ducts because the designs brought little to the sport.
"I personally think that it is sensible to nip in the bud technologies that, on the face of it, don't really have a relevance for use outside of F1," he said.

"By the end of the year I know we, and I am sure most of the other teams, will have an F-Duct on their car and that neutralises the advantage of having it.

"The engineers have already come up with ideas for next year that are zany in the extreme, and it is difficult to see how they would be used elsewhere. Plus they would be expensive."

He added: "I know it is disappointing for those who invent these ideas, but I think what people have to get used to is, like the double diffuser idea, they may be fairly short lived.

"You get your pay back for the year when you have got it and other people haven't - and if it isn't a useful technology then it comes off.

"What we should be encouraging is stuff that we can be using elsewhere, and I am personally a big proponent of KERS because of that."

FOTA agreed earlier this season to outlaw double diffusers as well for next season because of fears that the designs were getting out of control, and they did little to improve the racing.

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro has closed the gap to McLaren, the current leaders of the Constructors’ classification from nineteen to just three points, thanks to a generous haul of twenty six points picked up in this afternoon’s Spanish Grand Prix, the fifth round of the world championship. Fernando Alonso finished second, much to the delight of the Spanish crowd cheering him on the podium, behind race winner and pole man Mark Webber, whose Red Bull team-mate, Sebastian Vettel came home third. However, Red Bull has also closed the gap to a similar distance behind the Prancing Horse. Fernando now moves to second in the Drivers’ classification, while Felipe Massa contributed a valuable eight points by coming home sixth.

As the lights went out, Webber drove aggressively to keep his team-mate behind him, while Fernando came alongside Hamilton, but could not pass him so that he was lying fourth, where he would stay for nearly the entire race. Felipe got a good start from the fifth row, immediately jumping two places to seventh. He too would spend much of the race here, always in touch with the race long duel ahead of him between fifth placed Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button in sixth. However, the weekend long lack of grip meant the Brazilian could never really mount an effective challenge on those ahead. Apart from those drivers who had problems or penalties, everyone was on a one-stop strategy and the pit stops did little to change any places, with the exception of Hamilton getting ahead of Vettel to go second behind Webber, whose lead was never challenged.

Although there were some interesting battles in the midfield, the order hardly changed among the front runners, until a few laps from the end. Vettel was the first to run into trouble, running wide through a gravel trap, making an extra pit stop, which allowed Hamilton to move up to second, Fernando to third and Felipe to seventh. Then, with two laps remaining the English McLaren driver suffered a left front puncture which saw him crashing into the barriers and out of the race. You could hear the noise of the partisan crowd above the engines as this promoted Fernando to second place and also meant Felipe was now sixth. The final race result for the points finishers thus read like this: Webber, Alonso, Vettel on the podium, with Schumacher fourth, followed by Button, Massa, Sutil, Kubica, Barrichello and Alguersuari.

The twelve teams now tackle the shortest “back to back” schedule in the history of the sport, as the next round takes place around the twisty streets of Monaco, where traditionally, the first day of practice is on Thursday rather than Friday.

Stefano Domenicali: “Our aim today was to make the most of the package we had and we can claim to have succeeded in that. Fernando drove an amazing race, managing the car and tyres in the best way possible and this second place is just reward for all the hard work he has done, along with the team. Felipe got a great start and was always in a battle with Button and Schumacher, in a race that was always difficult for him: we have to work out how to make his car work the tyres better. Overall, we can be pleased with this result, given the situation in terms of different performance levels when compared to some of our rivals. However, as we are well aware, the races are long and difficult and only end at the chequered flag. We must continue to work on our performance because we have a significant gap to make up. We must continue to work on performance, because some of our rivals have shown they have made a bigger step forward than us.”

Fernando Alonso: “I am happy with getting this second place in front of my fans: I am happy for them, but especially for the team, who have worked so hard this weekend without making mistakes. It’s true the result came in an unexpected way, but that’s racing. We knew we could expect a difficult Grand Prix, because on tracks like this we still don’t have enough aerodynamic downforce to fight for pole position and the win, even if the races are very long and that was confirmed yet again today. In circumstances like this we have to try and attack and exploit every opportunity. Our strong point seems to be tyre management as ours seemed to be in better condition than those of our rivals in the final stages of the race. We have to up our performance level, but we do have the potential to win the championship. The management system for the blown rear wing worked well but it is still at the experimental stage. Maybe in Turkey we will have an updated version. Now we go to Monaco, a special Grand Prix that everyone wants to win. Set-up and tyres will be different to what we had here and we will see where that puts us compared to the others. After a few difficult races, I got back on the podium and I am second, three points behind the leader of the classification: there is still a long way to go in the championship, but I repeat, this is a great result.”

Felipe Massa: “It was a difficult race. I got a good start but then I was always behind other cars and I never managed to run at a constant pace. Once again today, the main difficulty was a lack of grip, especially in the third sector: every time it looked as though I might close on Button, he managed to get away from me over some sections of the track. We must work to improve the car’s performance and there is no doubt about it. Even though we brought home a good number of points, I can’t be happy with the way things went this weekend. When I touched a backmarker, the left front wing end plate got broken, but the handling of the car was not affected much. If I’d returned to the pits to change the nose, I would have lost at least three places, so the decision to stay out on track was the right one. Now we immediately head for Monaco, my second home race, given that I live a few hundred metres from the track. We will have different tyres to here and I hope we go back to finding ourselves in a more favourable situation, at least from my point of view.”

Chris Dyer: “A fantastic result for Fernando, while Felipe also drove a good race, after getting a great start. The team worked very well: perfect pit stops, no technical problems on either car. We knew it would be a very tough race for us, given the difference in performance to the Red Bulls that we had seen in qualifying. In the race we did not make any mistakes and in the end, we managed to profit from the problems of other drivers, which in fact illustrates that reliability remains the crucial factor if you want to reach your goals. Now we most concentrate on the next round in Monaco, a Grand Prix that is very special in every way.”

Qualifyng session

Session      Driver      Pos.      Time       Laps        Driver     Pos.      Time          Laps
    Q1         ALO        5th      1.21.957   10           MAS      10th    1.22.564     10
    Q2         ALO        5th      1.21.549    7            MAS       9th     1.21.841      8
    Q3         ALO        4th      1.20.937    6            MAS       9th     1.21.585      6

Chassis: F. Massa 284, F. Alonso 283
Weather: air temperature 22 °C, track temperature 34 °C. Partially cloudy.

One car on the second row and the other on the fifth: that was the outcome of qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, while Felipe Massa ended up ninth at the end of the third and final part of qualifying. “First and foremost I want to congratulate Fernando,” said Stefano Domenicali. “He drove a really fantastic lap, getting every last thousandth of a second of performance out of the package he had today. Felipe never managed to find the right feeling for the car this weekend and today he did the best he could: we have to analyse the reasons that led to this situation. On this track, so far one team has been untouchable, while the other top three teams are all very close. We will see if this will still be the case in tomorrow’s race, especially in terms of tyre performance. Points are handed out on Sunday and before jumping to conclusions, it’s best to wait for the chequered flag.”

Fernando Alonso: “I am pleased with this result. We knew the Red Bulls would be untouchable, so to be fourth is more or less what we expected. As usual, tomorrow’s race will be long and we must try and get the most out of what we have to work with. Something unexpected can always happen, as was the case for me this morning when I got a puncture coming out of the garage for my first run. I don’t think we lost any valuable time, concentrating on the development of the blown rear wing: here and in China, we had so many other new components that we have been able to gain a few tenths in performance terms, without which we would be much further back on the grid, because the others are also working very hard. We are moving in the right direction and we have to continue like this. Tomorrow, it will be very important to get a good start: recently they have not gone so well for me and so this would be just the right moment to get one!”

Felipe Massa: “In qualifying I had a lot of trouble finding the right grip level, especially in the second and third sectors, which contain the slowest corners on the track: I felt as though I was rally driving, always understeering. Already yesterday, I realised this would not be an easy weekend and so I was not surprised at what happened today. We worked on different set-ups for the car and chose the best one, but it was not enough: we have to work out why, but without panicking, but by calmly analysing the situation. Maybe I didn’t put together the best possible lap, but even so I don’t think I would have been in the fight for the top places. The Red Bulls are much quicker than everyone else here and we will have to do our best to try and get a good finishing position.”

Chris Dyer: “We cannot be happy to find ourselves almost a second off pole position, that’s for sure. Both Felipe and Fernando have struggled all weekend, especially in terms of grip levels. On his last qualifying lap, Fernando produced an exceptional lap and getting the car at least onto the second row was down to his talent. Tomorrow, it will be vital to manage to get a good start, given that, on this track, overtaking is very difficult. One unknown factor is tyre behaviour: from what we have seen so far, there might be some surprises over the long runs.”

Red Bull look poised to dominate Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix after putting on a crushing performance in qualifying on Saturday.

Alonso hustled his F-duct-equipped Ferrari to fourth with his final lap to demote the other McLaren and championship leader Jenson Button to fifth, although its three-five result is McLaren's best of the year so far.

Felipe Massa’s recent difficulties in exploiting one-lap pace from the F10 continued, meanwhile, as he took a rather muted ninth – the Brazilian a concerning 0.6s back on Alonso.

Mark Webber led team-mate Sebastian Vettel to a Red Bull one-two on the grid, and they were nearly a second faster than their closest rival.

Lewis Hamilton was third for McLaren, with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso splitting him from Jenson Button.

Mercedes's Michael Schumacher was sixth ahead of Renault's Robert Kubica.

Schumacher's team-mate Nico Rosberg, Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi completed the top 10.

All the teams brought updates to their car to Spain, but Red Bull's have proved more effective than anyone else's, making what was already the fastest car in F1 even faster.

Ferrari technical boss Aldo Costa has played down suggestions the team's F-duct solution is dangerous.

It is believed the cars driven by both Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa are still fitted with the downforce-spoiling innovation on Saturday following Friday's practice tests.

But unlike McLaren's system which is believed to be activated by the drivers' knees, the rumour in Barcelona is that Alonso and Massa - like the Sauber drivers - are triggering the airflow on the straights with their left hand.

Often at the same time, the drivers are using their right hand to then make adjustments to the brake balance.

"As you know, drivers are trained to use several systems in the car," said Costa. "They normally use the front flap adjuster, they normally use brake balance.

"Last year they used the KERS system, so they can also use the F-duct with no big issues," he insisted.

Ferrari got through its programme aimed at qualifying on a track that is still not rubbered in yet, with both cars using the new management system for the blown rear wing. Felipe Massa was quickest of the two, ending up sixth in 1.21.749, completing 16 laps, while team-mate Fernando Alonso took his F10 to eighth place, doing 15 laps, the best in 1.22.091. The grid-deciding qualifying session starts at 1pm (BST).

Red Bull once again showed its stunning pace to top the p3 timesheets with Vettel looking unbeatable at the moment. Reliability once again looks like the only problem stopping a Red Bull Racing this weekend in Spain.



With rain falling overnight the track was slippery when the session began. After the installation laps the first ten minutes were silent until Nico Hülkenberg ventured onto the track, making up for lost time after his crash in practice two yesterday.