Friday may famously be a 'rest' day at the Monaco GP, but Sky F1 are still all systems go and former Super Aguri driver Anthony Davidson speaks to Sky Sports Online about an intriguing opening day of practice...
Could that team be Ferrari perhaps? They looked strong in all conditions...AD: "As the frontrunners are going to be starting on the supersoft tyre, I can't envisage someone doing a one-stopper. But you never know. If anyone's going to try it might be Lotus - if they can't get on the frontrow, or even the second row, it seems all hope's lost of winning the race on sheer outright speed - a lot of the race is won by getting that coveted pole position here - then you've got to think outside the box and if your strength is saving tyres then you can do a one-stopper then it saves you a 20 second-odd loss in pitstops" What did you make of McLaren's day? They were in and around the top ten throughout but it was always going to be difficult to make a significant step forward here of all places, wasn't it?
AD: "They don't seem to have the downforce still. The car has been struggling with ride issues all year so far and if there's anywhere where you need a good ride it's here. But still their long-run didn't seem too bad, they were able to lap in a constant one minute nineteens during that final stint in P2 which seemed to match some of the better teams out there. "When you looked at the best long run, it seemed to be Kimi Raikkonen in the high one minute eighteens, while Mercedes were struggling a little bit on the supersoft tyre in the low one minute twenty-ones. So it gives you an idea of where McLaren are; they're somewhere in the hunt running their high one minute nineteens at the end of their long runs on the soft tyre."
AD: "It's a lot more work doing this I can tell you! Working for Sky you're still working on a Friday, but as a driver you had the odd PR thing to do but really it's a rest day and a recharging of your batteries for the Saturday." And essentially the start of P3 is almost like a re-set to the weekend isn't it in terms of the track's grip levels...
AD: "It is, yes. You've got the road traffic back there on Thursday night and into Friday as well. It's only a half day tomorrow, the track gets shut down and then reopened again for the public. So you get the oil and the grit and grime come down on the surface again and all the rubber gets picked up that you've put down so you start with a pretty 'green' track again on Saturday morning. We like a prediction, so putting you on the spot a bit, from what you've seen so far how do you think Qualifying and Race Day are going to pan out at the front?
AD: "For Qualifying I really think that Rosberg's looking strong and so it'll be a Mercedes lockout on Saturday with Nico leading the way. For the race, let's take a punt and try Kimi Raikkonen to win - that would be cool."