LIVE: Monaco Grand Prix FP2

Follow F1i's live, as-it-happens coverage of the second free practice session for the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix!

This is one of the highlights of the entire Formula One world championship, with its unique street circuit one of the most famous and iconic in the world. Every driver wants to win at Monaco - so who's going to be celebrating success on Sunday afternoon?

LIVE: Monaco Grand Prix - FP2

After their embarrassing mishap in Barcelona with both cars crashing out on the first lap, Mercedes made an early statement of intent and kept a firm grip on the top spots on the FP1 timesheets this morning. Lewis Hamilton's time of 1:15.537s is already much faster than the comparable session in 2015, thanks to the new ultrasoft tyres which get their first outing this weekend.

Nico Rosberg was only a tenth behind Hamilton, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel third fastest ahead of the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and man-of-the-moment Max Verstappen. The man Verstappen replaced, Danill Kvyat, had a strong session for Toro Rosso and was sixth fatest ahead of the Force Indias of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez.

It was an eventful session overall, with Felipe Massa putting his Williams into the barrier at Ste Devote and Esteban Gutierrez suffering an apparent engine failure at Portier. But the biggest incident of all came near the end, when the downforce suction from Rosberg's car appeared to rip open a drain. That left the Mercedes with a puncture, but the flying drain cover went straight into Jenson Button's car and left the McLaren with a puncture and significant damage to the front wing. Still, it's lucky that was the only impact and that both drivers escaped injury before the session was red flagged for track inspection to ensure no repeats.

You can read all about FP1 in our full report from trackside: Hamilton quickest as FP1 ends under red flag.

It's possible that the concerns over drain covers might end up causing a slight delay to the start of the second 90-minute free practice session. It's scheduled to get underway at 2pm local time (1pm BST), but even if that changes then don't worry - F1i will be right here bringing you all the latest news and information from trackside on F1i's live page the minute that it happens. Don't miss out - join us and see what happens next in the always-extraordinary ongoing story of Formula One!

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.