The Colombian, who recently missed two races after fracturing his shoulder, was fastest of all in the opening practice session for the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix.

At the wheel of a McLaren, he edged out Renault’s Fernando Alonso with a super-quick last-minute effort time of 1:17.152.

Alonso’s best result of 1:17.301, which had stood as the benchmark for most of the morning’s run, was good enough for second.

Third was Red Bull Racing’s Christian Klien who set an impressive time of 1:17.511 to finish just three tenths down on the leader.

The nature of the Monte-Carlo circuit, which isn’t demanding on engines, meant teams could turn down the revs and give their drivers plenty of track time.

It made for an interesting session with a tight battle for times from the early stages of the session to the end.

Renault, McLaren and Red Bull were the stand out teams with their drivers in the top three.

But Ferrari, thanks to Michael Schumacher, and Williams, with Mark Webber, also proved competitive.

Schumacher, a five time winner in the principality, finished fourth fastest and within half a second of Montoya while Webber, an F3000 Monaco race winner, slipped slightly at the end to finish in P7.

Minardi’s Patrick Friesacher was another man to impress.

In only his first visit to Monaco, and seemingly not daunted by the occasion, the Austrian youngster pushed hard from his first lap.

He eventually finished 19th fastest, but most importantly four seconds quicker than his team-mate Christijan Albers and the two race Jordans.