Hamilton fastest as Renault powered cars impress

F1 Grand Prix, GP Monaco, Monte Carlo Circuit

Lewis Hamilton dominated the first practice session of the day at Monaco, setting the best time of the session early on and remaining on top of the timesheet throughout. All Renault powered cars however, with Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso were on form today, with Verstappen fastest, a tenth off of Hamilton's best.

While Hamilton's best was set rather early on in the session, the damp track that gradually dried allowed other to close in as the session progressed.

Vestappen's late improvements to second came along with Ricciardo moving up to third, ahead of Sebastian Vettel who only just managed to avoid the barriers at Casino while setting his fastest lap. Carlos Sainz was 5th fastest, marking another strong session for Scuderia Toro Rosso.

Daniil Kvyat's 7th time also made it a strong session for the Renault powered teams, seeing all their 4 cars position themselves into the top 7.

Behind Kvyat however sat a group of drivers that didn't run when the track was at its best, including Raikkonen, Rosberg and Massa, ahead of the McLaren Honda duo. Alonso for instance was up to 6th 20 minutes from the end of the session, and after that dropped down the ranking as the Spaniard himself didn't improve.

At the back of the field, Sauber had a difficult start of the weekend while Manor Marussia completed the pack, running 2 seconds down on Ericsson in 18th.