MONACO GP – Charles Leclerc four hundredths ahead of Sergio Perez in first practice
Charles Leclerc was fastest in the first practice session ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix. The Ferrari driver set a 14.531 on the medium tyre which put him ahead of the Red Bull of Sergio Perez with the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz third, a further three hundredths behind the Mexican.
The first practice session in Monaco always sees rapid track evolution as drivers got to grips with the twisty and tight two-mile circuit with lap times improving by just under eight seconds as the track rubbered in. Ferrari and Red Bull looked to have a comfortable gap with Max Verstappen fourth, three tenths ahead of the McLaren of Lando Norris.
Leclerc had to take several attempts to go fastest and aborted several laps before going to the top of the times towards the session. Verstappen failed to challenge towards the end of the session after running wide and locking up, with him setting a 14.712 going ahead of Norris, as the Dutchman set his fastest lap towards the end of the session.
There were no crashes, but several drivers ran off track at the first corner. Along with Verstappen, Leclerc, Perez and Haas driver Kevin Magnussen all had moments there.
Pierre Gasly put his Alpha Tauri sixth almost three-hundredths behind Norris and splitting the McLaren’s after going seven hundredths faster than Daniel Ricciardo. A decent start for the Englishman who battled his way into the points in Barcelona despite being ill with tonsillitis over the last weekend.
Mercedes step forwards in Barcelona didn’t carry into the streets of Monte Carlo, George Russell could only go eighth eight and a half tenths off the pace. The porpoising issues appeared to return with Russell and teammate Lewis Hamilton seen bouncing their way around the streets.
The porpoising could be caused by the need to run stiffer suspension and higher ride heights to manage the bumps and other factors on the street circuits. The Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel was ninth, he split the Mercedes after going over a tenth faster than Hamilton.
Yuki Tsunoda put himself eleventh going three thousandths faster than Lance Stroll, the Canadian complaining he would crash after struggling with front grip. Stroll was two tenths faster than Fernando Alonso, the Alpine driver complain that the bouncing of Alex Albon’s Williams was causing his front wheels to skip into the air.
Esteban Ocon was sixteenth going two tenths faster than Guanyu Zhou with the second Williams of Nicolas Latifi going eighteenth, almost a second faster than Mick Schumacher.
It was a nightmare session for Schumacher in nineteenth, The Haas driver brought out the red flag when a gearbox failure forced him to stop on track blocking the pit lane entry, early on and he didn’t get back onto track.
Valtteri Bottas only managed two laps at a circuit expected to suit the Alfa Romeo, the Finn complaining that he had a pedal box issue and didn’t get back out on track.