Intermittent, light rain punctuated today's free practice session which saw Jarno Trulli's Renault produce fastest time of the day just ahead of an impressive Allan McNish who was having his first ever Monaco race outing after driving the safety car at last weekend's Historic GP.

Technical: New front and rear wings for this race.

Sporting: Trulli extremely happy with the feel of his R202 which seemed to be getting better and better throughout the two hour-long sessions. Button unhappy with the balance of his car, complaining about excessive understeer, and eventually hit the barrier at the bottom of the hill after Casino Square while running new tyres.

Quotes: Trulli: "I would like to be in the same position as I was a couple of years ago when I was fighting with Michael Schumacher for a place on the front row."

Technical: Minor aerodynamic modifications for this race.

Sporting: McNish extremely happy on his first visit to Monaco, although reporting that he found the Casino Square section particularly challenging. Salo had too much understeer and said his TF102 did not feel to good on a low fuel load.

Quotes: McNish: "I would like to think that I could qualify between tenth and 15^th here, which would be excellent for us."

Technical: Revised undertray on the MP4/17s for this race.

Sporting: Raikkonen crashed heavily at Rascasse during the first hour, badly damaging his MP4/17 monocoque beyond immediate repair this weekend. The team's spare car will be used as his race car tomorrow. Coulthard encouraged by third fastest time, getting the best out of the latest compound Michelin rubber.

Quotes: Coulthard: "On my last new set of tyres I picked up over a second even though it was a very scrappy lap."

Technical: No major technical changes for this race.

Sporting: Fisichella lost much of the first session after backing off too dramatically when de la Rosa crashed; the Jordan's revs dropped too low, the anti-stall mechanism engaged and the clutch disengaged, stalling the engine. In the afternoon things went well as he evaluated the revised front suspension tested at Valencia. Sato covered a lot of laps with no problems.

Quotes: Gary Anderson: "Apart from Giancarlo's problems this morning there has been nothing dramatic today; we spent the time evaluating tyres for the race."

Technical: New front wing endplates for this race.

Sporting: Montoya's first impression was that the conditions were much better than last year and that there was more in the car than the results may indicate on the strength of his times. Schumacher said that he was surprised how clean the circuit was on the first day.

Quotes: Schumacher: "I have had a trouble-free first day at this track, which is always very important at Monaco."

Technical: Minor aerodynamic changes to the cars for this race.

Sporting: The team worked on race set-up throughout the day and Barrichello reported himself reasonably happy with the team's progress. That view was mirrored by Schumacher who confirmed that the team had not yet found the ideal set-up.

Quotes:Ross Brawn: "As usual in Monaco, it is harder than usual to run a programme as the sessions tend to be fragmented with cars going off the track. Due to the weather conditions we worked on race set-up a bit more this afternoon, after checking out the general balance this morning."

Technical: No major changes to the cars for this race.

Sporting: Yoong crashed heavily at Rascasse in the first hour but the car was repaired for later in the day. Webber really feeling confident with the latest Michelin rubber and upbeat about qualifying.

Quotes: Webber: "I won the F3000 race here last year and I'm hoping that will stand me in good stead."

Technical: No major changes to the cars for cars.

Sporting: Both drivers reported that the cars did not feel so good on new tyres and the team has to look through the data in a bid to understand how to improve the chassis.

Quotes: Panis: "The car feels basically not too bad, but we do have to resolve this particular problem."

Technical: No major changes to the cars.

Sporting: Frentzen very satisfied with the handling balance on race set-up and confident about the tyres. Bernoldi suffered an engine failure and pulled off beyond Casino Square during the second hour.

Quotes: Frentzen: "I have a feeling that we could go quite well here if we have a trouble-free qualifying."

SAUBER PETRONAS (15^th Heidfeld/16^th Massa)

Technical: Revised rear wings for this race.

Sporting: Heidfeld not happy with handling balance, reporting that it was jumping about over the bumps too unpredictably. Massa had a spun going into the chicane during the morning and then hit the wall during the second hour at Tabac, removing the right front wheel.

Quotes: Peter Sauber: "On his first visit to Monte Carlo, Felipe found that it can exact a high price for a small mistake, as rookies often do."

Technical: No changes to the cars for this race.

Sporting: De la Rosa shunted coming out of the chicane after the swimming pool during the first hour, but the car was repaired after twenty minutes of the second hour. Irvine crashed at Massenet on oil apparently dropped by Bernoldi's Arrows.