Alonso and Button Fastest in Monaco Practice

Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button lead the first and second qualifying sessions, respectively, for the Monaco Grand Prix. 

The teams tried to conserve tires in the first session and tried not to complete many laps. Alonso was over 0.3 faster than Romain Grosjean. Sergio Perez, Lewis Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado all managed laps in the 1:16.xxx range putting them in third, fourth and fifth respectively.

Kimi Raikonnen did not like the steering of his Lotus-RenaultLotus E20United Kingdom, 2012 > 201213 photos
, did a single out lap and returned to have it changed. He was not able to complete any more laps for the session while it was changed. 

With 10 minutes left in the session, Heikki Kovalainen's engine exploded near the end of the tunnel and spilled oil on the track. The practice session was cancelled early to clean up the mess. 

Button lead the second practice session later in the day. The first 15 minutes were dry, while the rest of the session was spoiled by rain. During the dry period, Button was able to set a 1:15.746 lap, and Grosjean remained in second but improved his time slightly to 1:16.138.

Kovalainen continued to have bad luck when he slid off a wet track at Mirabeau. He was unable to get his car into reverse.

There will be no practice on Friday. The third practice session will be from 11am to 12pm local time on Saturday, and qualifying will begin a 2:00pm local time on Saturday. 

Source: Autosport (1,2)