Monaco: Formula One leader Sebastian Vettel looked a good bet for Ferrari's first Monaco Grand Prix victory since 2001 after the fastest lap ever around the metal-fenced street circuit in Thursday practice.
The four-time world champion topped the timesheets with a best effort of one minute 12.720 seconds in the afternoon. Mercedes title rival Lewis Hamilton had been fastest before lunch.
The German was the only driver to break the one minute 13 seconds barrier.
Triple world champion Hamilton, six points behind after five races, was only eighth in the later practice with a lap of 1:13.873, more than a second off the pace.
The Briton, last year's winner in Monaco, had produced a 1:13.425 effort in the morning, when Vettel had to settle for second best. Hamilton, whose Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas ended the day 10th, is hoping to equal the 65 career pole positions of late boyhood idol Ayrton Senna in Saturday's qualifying. Ferrari's 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest, ahead of Toro Rosso's Russian Daniil Kvyat and teammate Carlos Sainz, with Max Verstappen sixth for senior team Red Bull.
Michael Schumacher remains the last Ferrari driver to conquer Monaco, whose tight and twisty harbourside street circuit promises to be an even greater challenge this year with faster and wider cars.
:We need to get into the rhythm and Monte Carlo is a lot about confidence at the end of the day, so you need to trust your car," Vettel had said on Wednesday.
:I am confident that we have the tools so it's up to us to find the right set-up to get into groove and have the confidence. Wider car and wider tyres - it makes the track more narrow I guess."
, who is competing at the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. with a time only a fraction slower than Belgian teammate Stoffel Vandoorne - a solid performance for a driver who had not been in a Formula One car since last November.
The second session was briefly red flagged with half an hour remaining when Canadian rookie Lance Stroll, testing the limits on his first Monaco weekend, hit the barriers hard at the entrance to Casino Square. Stroll was not injured.
Britain's Jolyon Palmer also had trouble when his Renault suffered a blown engine..
