Hungry Hamilton sets practice pace for Monaco GP

MONTE CARLO, Monaco -- Lewis Hamilton showed his determination to end a four-race winless streak by setting the pace Thursday at the opening practice sessions for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Hamilton was fastest through the first two sectors of the infamous street circuit on his way to clocking a best lap of 1 minute, 15.140 seconds in the afternoon session.

The 23-year-old McLaren driver finished runner-up in his first try at Formula One's most renowned track last year behind then teammate Fernando Alonso. Hamilton, coming off a second-place finish at the Turkish GP, was nearly four-tenths of a second quicker than Nico Rosberg of Williams, who timed 1:15.533.

McLaren has long enjoyed success at Monaco with 14 victories in the past 25 races. Hamilton also triumphed here in GP2 two years ago.

The Briton dismissed suggestions that Monaco's track was out of date for today's racing.

"The lap I just did in practice was not an old lady's lap -- this is a racers' track. If you can't drive it, that's your problem," Hamilton said.

Ferrari, looking for a fifth straight race victory, saw Kimi Raikkonen finish third in 1:15.572 ahead of teammate Felipe Massa, who went around the 2.075-mile circuit in 1:15.869.

"After today we are seeing for sure it will be very tough. Our main competitor is very, very strong," said Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali.

Ferrari has only five victories in Monaco in the last 30 years. The last came seven years ago through Michael Schumacher, who in Ferrari's garage on Thursday.

"We needed to think (about) how to have a different approach (this year) so we did a long study on the setups we took in the past years and tried to better understand the tire usage, tire pressure connected to setups," Domenicali said.

Domenicali also said tricky weather conditions, which have often played a determining role at Monte Carlo, could offset McLaren's clear advantage.

Raikkonen, who won here in 2005 for McLaren, leads the overall championship standings with 35 points, seven better than Massa and Hamilton, who hasn't won since the season-opening Australian GP.

McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen -- who was fastest through the final sector -- rounded out the day's top five with a time of 1:15.881.