Hamilton Sets The Pace In Monaco Practice

Lewis Hamilton has set the pace in the opening practice for the Monaco GP, with Mercedes teammate and rival Nico Rosberg down in ninth place.

Rosberg, who won last time out in Spain and is seeking a hat-trick on the streets of the principality this weekend, made a slow start, relatively speaking.

The German clipped the barriers in the opening minutes of the session and ended up with a fastest lap over a second slower than Hamilton's best, a 1:18.750.

With Rosberg rejoining on a fresh set of soft tyres ahead of everyone else, the suspicion is that he therefore wasn't able to make use of them when the track conditions were at their best.

After overnight rain, the track was slightly damp at the outset. However, it soon dried and the session with busy enough with Hamilton leading the way with 49 laps.

Max Verstappen completed 42, but saved his best until last, a 1:18.899, that placed him 0.149s slower than the lead Mercedes - another impressive display from the 17-year-old debutant.

The times ticked over rapidly in the closing minutes, with Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull emerging third fastest from Sebastian Vettel, who ran second to Hamilton for quite some time.

Vettel appeared to be giving it his all in his Ferrari and at one stage almost hit the barrier while exiting Casino Square.

A number of drivers took to the escape road at the first corner, Sainte Devote and Rosberg aside, however, no-one made contact with the barriers.

Carlos Sainz again joined Toro Rosso teammate Verstappen in the Top 10 - the Spaniard being sixth fastest ahead of Pastor Maldonado's Lotus and Daniil Kvyat's Red Bull.

Kimi Raikkonen was eighth for Ferrari - the Finn complaining about tyre warm-up amongst other gripes - ahead of Rosberg, with Felipe Massa's Williams completing the top 10.