MONACO GP – Charles Leclerc fastest half tenth and a half ahead of Max Verstappen in first practice
Charles Leclerc was fastest in first practice for the Monaco Grand Prix; the Ferrari driver set an 11.964 on the soft tyres putting himself just over a tenth and a half faster than Max Verstappen. However, it wasn’t the perfect session for the local with two incidents where he made contact with the barriers and the rear of Lance Stroll bringing out the first red flag of the weekend.
Leclerc locked up on his first lap going straight on at Mirabeau Haute (Turn Four) but reversed out of the run-off before moments later locking up in the braking zone and running into the Aston Martin at the Hotel Hairpin (Turn Six).
The incident required both drivers to return for checks in the pit lane, ending Stroll’s session with a broken rear suspension and a gearbox change. The stewards deemed Stroll was “wholly to blame” giving him a one-place grid penalty for the Grand Prix.
Encouragingly for Ferrari, on a track they were not expected to be competitive at, Leclerc set his lap much earlier than Verstappen so could have gone even quicker. Leclerc however has been pessimistic about Ferrari’s hopes for Monaco, had an incident-packed session. He said at various times that Ferrari were “nowhere” and that there was “something wrong with the car”.
Red Bull and Verstappen had a low-key session until the four-time champion did a soft run in the final quarter of the hour going second. His best time a 12.127 an improvement of over a tenth on his best time.
Lando Norris put his McLaren third going just over a tenth and a half behind Verstappen, Monte Carlo is often a circuit where drivers need to build their confidence in practice going into the most important qualifying sessions of the season. Norris was a quarter of a tenth faster than Alex Albon who continued to show strong pace in the Williams.
Albon managed to split the two McLaren’s as he went a quarter of a tenth faster than Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri, by also around a quarter of a second. But McLaren are likely the favourite as the circuit ramps up and the drivers build confidence around the streets of Monaco.
Both Norris and Piastri pushed hard clipping the barriers at various points in the session but without damage, though the Englishman had a trip into the escape road at Sainte Devote (Turn One).
George Russell put his Mercedes sixth as he went ahead of Carlos Sainz by over a tenth and a quarter, with the Alpine of Pierre Gasly eighth ahead of Lewis Hamilton by two hundredths. The seven-time champion was lucky to avoid a major incident, when he clipped the inside wall at the exit of the Swimming Pool and bounced over the kerbs in the run-off area. The seven-time champion ended the session ninth in his Ferrari.
Fernando Alonso completed the top ten nearly four hundredths behind Hamilton. Aston Martin has been joined for the first time by new managing technical partner Adrian Newey, who was in the garage with his famous notebook casting his eye over events.
A range of tyre compounds were used across the hour of practice with an unpredictable race expected on Sunday due to the introduction of two mandatory pit stops. Although the usual rule of only two different compounds need to be used, at least three tyre sets will need to be run during the seventy-eight laps, and the pit stops can happen at any time.
Kimi Antonelli put his Mercedes eleventh, the Italian missed out on the top ten by eight tenths but he was just over a tenth faster than the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg. Isack Hadjar was just under half a tenth behind in the Racing Bull as he went nearly half a tenth behind the Frenchman.
Yuki Tsunoda put his Red Bull fourteenth ahead of the Haas duo, with Ollie Bearman six and a half hundredths faster than teammate Esteban Ocon. Liam Lawson was seventeenth going four hundredths ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto and Franco Colapinto, while Stroll’s crash left him last without a representative lap time.