four practice sessions were held before the qualifying session, two on the thursday before the race, and two on saturday morning before the qualifying session. the driver's championship leader, the ferrari driver michael schumacher, was fastest in all four practice sessions, and in the final session set a record lap time for the monaco circuit, of 1:14.014. schumacher's record time was set in response to a fast lap time from jarno trulli. the jaguar driver mark webber suffered an engine failure in the final practice session, and for changing his engine suffered an automatic 10 place grid penalty for the subsequent qualifying session, a penalty also suffered by ralf schumacher, for an engine failure in the first practice session.