Barrichello quickest in first practice

Rubens Barrichello made the ideal start to erasing painful memories of a Spanish Grand Prix he felt he should have won 11 days ago when practice got under way in Monaco.

The Brazilian was quickest in the first practice session ahead of Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix as he sought to put to bed his bitter disappointment at what he felt was a potential favouring of Brawn GP team-mate Jenson Button in Barcelona.

As blue skies and warm sunshine added to the picturesque view of the Principality, Barrichello clocked a time of one minute 17.189 seconds around the tight, twisty, barrier-lined street circuit. His nearest rival was Felipe Massa in his Ferrari, who was 0.310secs adrift, followed closely by world champion Lewis Hamilton.

In the build-up to this race, McLaren and Hamilton indicated their car would be far better suited to a low-speed Monaco track compared to Barcelona where they languished.

With Hamilton and team-mate Heikki Kovalainen third and fourth, the latter just under half a second down, there is hope yet for McLaren and that the former might just repeat his win of a year ago.

In a similarly strong showing for Ferrari, and with the sport's two biggest teams occupying four of the top five places for the first time this season, Kimi Raikkonen was fifth, 0.650secs adrift.

The Williams duo of Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg were sixth and seventh, followed by current championship leader Button, who finished over eight tenths of a second off the pace.

Fernando Alonso in his Renault and the Red Bull of Mark Webber, who was third in Spain, were ninth and 10th, although the latter and team-mate Sebastian Vettel both encountered issues.

With the team running their new rear diffuser for the first time this season, Webber complained during the 90-minute session of vibrations at the back of his car.

As for Vettel, he was forced into the pits with a likely engine issue as puffs of smoke were seen from the rear of his car at one stage, with the young German eventually finishing 14th.