Jaguar off to a blazing start

Jaguar Racing's Monaco Grand Prix weekend got off to a fiery start in the first practice, as Mark Webber found himself extinguishing his own engine blaze. Webber had just set the fifth fastest time of the session when he felt the engine suddenly ...

Jaguar Racing's Monaco Grand Prix weekend got off to a fiery start in the first practice, as Mark Webber found himself extinguishing his own engine blaze.

Webber had just set the fifth fastest time of the session when he felt the engine suddenly lose power. "I saw the flames in the mirror and from then I was desperately trying to find a marshals post, but couldn't. So as I stopped I was frantically waving to the marshals to come over but they didn't seem in any hurry. In the end I grabbed an extinguisher off one of them and did it myself."

Unable to take ny further part in the session, Webber dropped to 15th by the end.

Team-mate Christian Klien completed 29 laps and set the session's 17th fastest time. "For my first time round here it was important to get the laps under my belt and I was very aware I couldn't afford to tag the barriers. We made reasonable progress with the car and have a good feel for the characteristics of our two tyre options."

Test driver Bjorn Wirdheim completed 18 laps before his session was curtailed by a small elctrical problem. He was 20th fastest.

Chasing his sixth successive win of 2004, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher ended the opening session on top of the pile ahead of on-form BAR drivers Takuma Sato and Jenson Button.