The first Free Practice session often gets off to a slow start, and Monaco was no different, despite the need to clean up the track. Esteban Gutiérrez was out and about first, and gradually others joined him to help the rubbering in effort.

Fernando Alonso set an early benchmark but was beaten by Nico Rosberg. Romain Grosjean put in a healthy third fastest time. Adrian Sutil suffered a spin that saw him just miss out on hitting the barriers, and he was able to continue.

Grosjean wasn't quite as lucky as Sutil in the second session, as he crashed his Lotus into the barriers at the first corner, causing a red flag. The stewards took the opportunity to patch up a kerb at the same time. Alonso was another that narrowly missed hitting the barriers after avoiding a Sauber at the pit entry, and he was forced to run wide at Rascasse, but the Spaniard still found himself third fastest.

It was all about Mercedes, though, as Rosberg topped the times again, with Lewis Hamilton just three tenths behind him. The two Ferraris followed, with Mark Webber the best placed Red Bull in fifth.

After previously being put on gardening leave at McLaren, Paddy Lowe’s move to join the ever-growing Mercedes management team wasn’t due to take place until next year. McLaren have given their former technical director an early release from his contract, however, and Lowe will now take up his similar role at Mercedes on the 3rd June.

Lowe will become one of two executive directors at the team - the technical side to be filled by Paddy, and the business side from the recently joined Toto Wolff. Ross Brawn remains in charge as team principal, with the overall responsibility for both sides.

With this announcement of yet another member joining his team, Brawn spoke of the need to ready themselves not just for next season’s regulation overhaul. He said: “It’s no secret that every team is facing a signifiant balancing act between this year and next. But it’s perhaps less obvious that we will also see major changes for the 2015 and 2016 seasons, as development progresses with the new generation of car design and Power Unity. To deliver in these circumstances, a successful team needs strength in depth.”

Pirelli have faced criticism for their Formula One tyres in 2013, and this week agreed to tweak the compounds ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix. Efforts will be made to increase the durability of the rubber, as well as maintain the excitement of the races.

Lotus team principal Eric Boullier isn’t impressed with this news, believing it to be unfair to make changes like this mid-season. He says: “Just imagine for a moment that, because a football team can’t run as fast as its opponent, the dimensions of the pitch are changed at half time... Last year, when we were designing our 2013 car, each team received information from Pirelli and everyone did the best job they could to develop a chassis which would make the best use of the tyre characteristics... As with every season, some teams do a better job than others with their designs, and some drivers are more adaptable than others.”

However, the Italian tyre manufacturer are hoping the tweaks won’t favour anyone in particular, saying: “These changes are being made for Pirelli, not for anyone else. We didn’t want to over-react, because by doing that we could then be helping certain teams.”