Motor Racing: Hamilton Crashes Back to Earth With a Thud Into Wall

Lewis Hamilton received a spectacular reality check yesterday when his McLaren-Mercedes plunged off the road into the wall during the second 90-minute free practice session for Sunday's Monaco grand prix.

After spending most of the day jousting with his team-mate Fernando Alonso for the fastest time it seemed as though the 22-year-old British driver had mastered the twists and turns of this unique and challenging circuit with the same aplomb as he deployed to seize the lead of the world championship over the first four races of the season.

But Monaco is no respecter of reputations and, braking hard for the tricky second-gear 60mph Ste Dévote right-hander, Hamilton plunged off the road into the outer barrier, ripping off the left-hand front wheel and shuddering to a halt in a cloud of smoke and debris. He calmly undid his seat harness, climbed from the cockpit and strolled away from the wreckage, rightly putting the unfortunate excursion down to inexperience.

"Today was the first time I ever drove a formula one car around Monaco and it was awesome," said Hamilton. "I have obviously had experience around Monaco in a formula three and a GP2 car, but in a formula one car it is very different. I found out how unforgiving the track can be when I went off in the second session, causing some damage to the car.

"I'm obviously sorry because there will be a bit of work for the guys [mechanics] but until then everything had been going smoothly and we had been able to set some competitive lap times. I made a small error under braking for Ste Dévote, and the tyres hadn't worked up enough grip so I made a tiny mistake, the back of the car slipped a little and that was it."

Hamilton was at least in good company. By the end of the second session Ralf Schumacher's Toyota, Anthony Davidson's Super Aguri and the Spyker-Ferrari of the rookie Briton's one-time formula three team-mate, Adrian Sutil, were scattered around the circuit in varying stages of disarray. During the first free practice session Hamilton lapped faster and faster at the head of the timing screens, fleetingly raising memories of the late Ayrton Senna's kerb-shaving genius through the same sunlit streets almost two decades ago.

In reality, though, it was Alonso, the winner last year for Renault, who was out to prove a point. The twice world champion arrived in Monaco trailing Hamilton by two points and determined to retake the initiative in the title chase. A series of impeccable laps made him fastest in both sessions after a copybook display of precision high-speed motoring.

"We made good progress and the car feels good," said Alonso. "Monaco is a unique circuit with close barriers and also traffic. It's very easy to get a lap ruined, but that's the challenge for everybody. But I think we are in good shape."

For much of the first session the BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica - who at 22 is one of the contemporaries Hamilton genuinely rates - was in the leading bunch, reflecting just how much progress has been made by the German team over the past few races. Kubica and his team-mate, Nick Heidfeld, were benefiting from a new power-steering system which gave them a more precise and sensitive feel on this uniquely demanding track.

"It was quite a good day as we did a lot of testing," said the Pole. "We have to work on the setup and choose the best compromise as some of the weather forecasts are predicting rain for qualifying on Saturday."