Practice 1 Report - Vettel fastest in Monaco

Sebastian Vettel (1:16.619) topped the first session of practice for the Monaco Grand Prix, trading quickest times with Fernando Alonso's Ferrari (1:16.732) at the end of the 90 minutes.

Nico Rosberg's Mercedes (1:17.139) was third quickest, ahead of Felipe Massa with the second Ferrari (1:17.316) and Lewis Hamilton (1:17.350), who was a couple of tenths quicker than McLaren-Mercedes team mate Jenson Button (1:17.534).

Pastor Maldonado, something of a Monaco specialist with victories here in World Series by Renault and GP2, posted seventh best time for Williams (1:18.527), ahead of Adrian Sutil's Force India (1:18.578), Vitaly Petrov's Renault (1:18.733) and Michael Schumacher's Mercedes (1:18.805).

The session was red-flagged for a few minutes while impromptu repairs were made to the track surface on the front straight, and then Michael Schumacher had an odd-looking off at Ste Devote seven minutes before the end of the session. The car did not seem to want to turn-in, Schumacher took to the escape road, but the right rear made contact with the tyre barrier.

It was a disappointing start for 2010 Monaco winner Mark Webber, however, the Australian managing just three laps before a gearbox problem brought his session to a premature end.