Monaco, May 21: Australian Mark Webber also had a torrid time, his Jaguar's engine catching fire in the first session. Then early in the second, he hit the guardrail at Tabac corner. The first session was halted for six minutes as marshals, slow to douse the flames as cars accelerated past them out of the chicane at the end of the tunnel, used a crane to lift the stricken Jaguar off the circuit. Fans were probably examining the front of the car closely after the fire. As part of a Hollywood promotion the Jaguar team have real diamonds embedded in the noses of their cars - and it was acknowledged that they might become lost on the track in a crash or other incident. Schumacher equalled the best start to a Formula One season, Briton Nigel Mansell's five in a row in 1992, at the last race in Spain. If he wins on Sunday, he can begin to think seriously about matching Italian Alberto Ascari's record run of nine successive wins for Ferrari in 1952-53.

Bureau Report