Ferrari provided the first confirmation that it may be more than a match for
McLaren around the twisting streets of Monaco this season by topping the timesheets in opening practice for the 2008 grand prix.
After waiting for others to clear the track surface,
Kimi Raikkonen worked his way up to the benchmark time set by last year's runner-up,
Lewis Hamilton, before edging ahead of the Briton in the closing moments of the 90-minute session, clocking the first sub 1min 16secs lap of the weekend. The world champion looked anything but in the Principality a year ago as Ferrari struggled to get on terms with Hamilton and
Fernando Alonso, but early indications - with
Felipe Massa safely in fourth spot - are that the Scuderia will be in the mix this time.
It's main opposition looks set to come from the defending race winners, with Hamilton and McLaren team-mate
Heikki Kovalainen sandwiched between the two scarlet cars on the timesheet. Hamilton was marginally the quicker of the two, ending the session 0.268secs shy of Raikkonen, with Kovalainen 0.032secs further back.
Once the usual installation laps were out of the way, the track became the domain of Toro Rosso, as both
Sebastien Bourdais and
Sebastian Vettel got further acquainted with the new STR3. The pair had the track to themselves for some time, but it ultimately did little for their results, with Bourdais settling only as high as 13th while Vettel, who completed more laps than anyone in the session, only being kept off the bottom by
David Coulthard's stranded
Red Bull machine.
The Scot failed to complete a flying lap before coasting to a halt exiting the tunnel, but there was better news from the other half of the RBR camp, as
Mark Webber posted the ninth best time of the session.
