» 2013 Monaco GP: Mercedes on top again in FP2

Nico Rosberg has extended Mercedes’ pace-setting speed as Thursday’s practice for the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix came to a close.

With the field running Pirelli’s super soft compounds in the afternoon’s practice session, Rosberg led teammate Lewis Hamilton by 0.318 seconds, ahead of Ferrari duo Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.

Track conditions were much warmer than the morning’s session – which also had Rosberg atop the timesheets – and the conditions encouraged much more substantial running over the ninety minutes of play.

Alonso was quickest overall during the initial soft-tyre running before the teams switched to the super soft rubber, at which point Rosberg posted three purple sectors to ease himself to the top of the timing screens. Teammate Hamilton was able to improve on his quickest lap-time to claim second overall.

Despite being third-quickest overall, Alonso had a number of ragged laps and several lock-ups as he fought to navigate his Ferrari between the barriers. Fortunately he managed to avoid any scrapes with the wall to beat home teammate Massa by less than a tenth of a second on the stopwatch.

Mark Webber was fifth-quickest and led the Red Bull Racing charge, albeit six-tenths of a second off Rosberg’s pace. The Australian – the event’s defending race-winner – finished ahead of Lotus pairing Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean, although the latter’s session was over after just ten laps when he slapped the barrier at Sainte Devote, mangling the front-left corner of his E21 and giving his mechanics a long night of repairs.

McLaren managed to get itself into the top-ten, courtesy of Jenson Button making a late charge on his super soft tyres. Worryingly, however, the Englishman was still a full 1.2 seconds off the leading pace, indicating the Woking squad still has a mountain to climb if it holds hopes of getting back to the front of the grid anytime soon.

Sebastian Vettel finished ninth-fastest overall after he was delayed getting onto the track while his mechanics fixed an unspecified technical glitch on his Red Bull RB9.

He finished ahead of the Force India pairing of Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil – with the latter managing to keep his car out of the barriers in this session.

The session also suffered a momentary red flag when marshals had to make emergency repairs to the Turn 13 kerbing.

As is tradition in Monaco, the field will enjoy a ‘rest day’ on Friday, although it will still be filled with an enormous amount of PR duties as the teams and sponsors seek to capitalise on all exposure opportunities during the most glamorous weekend of the year. Tomorrow night’s highlight will be the traditional Amber Lounge Fashion Show, where a selection of the world’s fastest men on four wheels will suit up and showcase their modeling skills in aid of chairty.

2013 Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:14.759		46
2.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:15.077	+ 0.318	51
3.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:15.196	+ 0.434	38
4.	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:15.278	+ 0.519	39
5.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:15.404	+ 0.645	42
6.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus F1 Renault E21	1:15.511	+ 0.752	39
7.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Renault E21	1:15.718	+ 0.959	10
8.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:15.959	+ 1.200	40
9.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:16.014	+ 1.255	33
10.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:16.046	+ 1.287	43
11.	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:16.349	+ 1.590	44
12.	Sergio Pérez	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:16.434	+ 1.675	41
13.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:16.823	+ 2.064	43
14.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault FW35	1:16.857	+ 2.098	41
15.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:16.935	+ 2.176	45
16.	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:17.145	+ 2.386	38
17.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:17.184	+ 2.425	35
18.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault FW35	1:17.264	+ 2.505	43
19.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia Cosworth MR02	1:17.892	+ 3.133	47
20.	Charles Pic	Caterham Renault CT03	1:18.212	+ 3.453	41
21.	Max Chilton	Marussia Cosworth MR02	1:18.784	+ 4.025	44
22.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Renault CT03	1:19.031	+ 4.272	31