By Steven English Thursday, May 13th 2010, 15:28 GMT
Michael SchumacherMichael Schumacher believes Mercedes has a good chance to qualify near the front of the grid in Monaco after placing both of its cars in the top five in Thursday's second free practice session.
Schumacher finished the day fifth quickest, with team-mate Nico Rosberg second, and the seven-time world champion reckons the unique nature of the street circuit will prevent the likes of Red Bull from running away at the front.
"You clearly have to say that Monaco is a very special place to drive," Schumacher said. "I got back into the rhythm of the track, especially on the long runs, and I think we can be quite confident for tomorrow as the car is definitely quite reasonable to handle.
"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 which will make it a very interesting qualifying in my view. I am looking forward to it."
Rosberg was pleased with his day's work, despite losing running time during first practice to a suspension problem.
"We made good progress this afternoon after losing some time in the morning with a pushrod problem that we had to fix," he said. "The laptimes looked quite promising in the second session and I felt very comfortable in the car.
"We were able to improve the set-up continuously and get the tyres working better as the session went on. So everything looks promising after the first day."
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Alonso Ferrari 1:14.904 36
2. Rosberg Mercedes 1:15.013 + 0.109 39
3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:15.099 + 0.195 47
4. Massa Ferrari 1:15.120 + 0.216 44
5. Schumacher Mercedes 1:15.143 + 0.239 38
6. Kubica Renault 1:15.192 + 0.288 38
7. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.249 + 0.345 32
8. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:15.460 + 0.556 42
9. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.619 + 0.715 37
10. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:15.620 + 0.716 28
11. Petrov Renault 1:15.746 + 0.842 44
12. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:16.276 + 1.372 46
13. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:16.348 + 1.444 48
14. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:16.522 + 1.618 37
15. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:16.528 + 1.624 42
16. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:16.599 + 1.695 36
17. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:16.818 + 1.914 45
18. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:17.023 + 2.119 28
19. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:18.184 + 3.280 47
20. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:18.478 + 3.574 38
21. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:18.667 + 3.763 13
22. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:18.721 + 3.817 41
23. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:20.313 + 5.409 35
24. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:22.148 + 7.244 11
All Timing Unofficial
