Nico's Monaco Blog: Thursday

Posted on Friday 22 May 2009 and tagged with nico, blog, monaco.

It was great fun out there today. It’s always a great thrill to drive an F1 car around Monaco because it’s such a fantastic racetrack. You’re always going uphill or downhill and you’re never far from the barriers, which makes it very mentally demanding.

Today’s practice sessions were all about risk management: I had to push hard enough to get a good lap time, but it was vital not to overstep the mark because that would have put me in the wall and ruined my weekend. To end the day with the fastest lap time was very satisfying. What was impressive, however, wasn’t that single lap time; it was the long-run pace of my FW31. If we can keep the same balance for the remainder of the weekend, I’ll be very satisfied.

Thursday night is traditionally party night in Monaco because there’s no on-track action on Friday. We had the AT&T Williams team party on the ‘Stad Amsterdam’ clipper this evening and it was great to hang out with the boys in a relaxed atmosphere. My girlfriend, Vivian, came along too and we had a good time.

It’s going to feel weird having a lie-in tomorrow morning, on the Friday of a Grand Prix weekend. But I’m never averse to a bit of extra time in bed!