2010 Monaco Grand Prix

Championship standings

Button goes into Monte Carlo with a three-point lead over Fernando Alonso and a ten-point margin over Sebastian Vettel. Seven drivers are in a position to take the championship lead with a win in the Principality.

Previous race

Webber won in Spain to claim his first victory of the season, taking pole position in both events. The championship at the top is tightly contested, with the gap from Button to seventh place covering a realistic winning scenario for all.

Between-race developments

The FIA has set a maximum allowable lap time for qualifying here: any car that sets a lap time slower than 1 minute 22 seconds between the first and last corners faces penalties from the stewards. The rule is a response to concerns that the new teams — between three and six seconds slower per lap than the established teams — could impede flying laps in the narrow and unforgiving circuit. A proposal to split the first qualifying session into two groups of 12 was rejected at Barcelona.

Track changes

The kerbs on the exit of the Nouvelle Chicane and in the second half of the Swimming Pool complex have been raised to deter cars from cutting the chicanes. Several sections of the circuit, including the pit lane and the northern half from the Casino to the tunnel, have been resurfaced. The new kerbs are painted yellow.

Entrants

Bruno Senna damaged his Hispania F110 in practice at Barcelona and competed in Monaco with the unrepaired chassis, as the team was unable to identify the fault. His lap times in free practice are two seconds slower than teammate Chandhok’s.

Practice

The opening Thursday practice session was incident-free except for Chandhok stopping after six laps following a brush with the barriers and a spin at Massanet, and Kobayashi clipping the chicane at the Swimming Pool entrance and finding the barriers. Alonso was fastest and the only driver to break the 1:16 barrier; Vettel was second with a dead-heat at 1:16.000, Kubica a hundredth behind him. Virgin’s Glock was the quickest of the new teams, 3.5 seconds off the pace.

The second session was run in light rain not heavy enough for intermediate tyres. Alonso again led, breaking 1:15 this time, with Rosberg second and Vettel third. Kovalainen was the fastest of the new teams, a second adrift of Alguersuari in 18th. Massa’s Ferrari impeded Kovalainen on a flying lap.

In Saturday practice, Alonso crashed heavily at Massanet in the opening six laps and failed to set a representative time. Glock stopped early with hydraulics problems and set no time. Kubica was fastest, edging Massa by four hundredths of a second, with Webber third. Half a second covered the top seven drivers at the session’s end.