MONACO GP – Max Verstappen fastest by two tenths from Charles Leclerc in second practice
Max Verstappen was fastest in the second practice for this weekends Monaco Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver once again looks like the team to beat despite Charles Leclerc being only six hundredths off Verstappen, the Dutchman had made set up changes going into the session after struggling in the first practice session.
Red Bull go into this weekend looking to be the team to beat having dominated the first five races, the question however remains have Ferrari truly closed the gap or is the closeness due to the uniqueness of Monaco. Leclerc was five hundredths ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz, who he pushed to third despite clipping the wall on the exit of the Swimming Pool.
The turnaround between FP1 and FP2 shows that Red Bull can turn it around quickly, but the Dutchman had to do an extra qualifying run this suggests at this stage of the weekend the world champions could have their toughest challenge of the season so far if they are to take a sixth win.
Sainz was the most impressive Ferrari driver for much of the day having topped FP1, while Leclerc was struggling to get close to the Spaniard. Sainz’s crash was near copy of Leclerc’s crash at the end of Q3 last year, which saw the Monacan fail to start his home race from pole position.
The accident brought out the red flag and the end of the qualifying simulations as with time running out when the session resumes with just over ten minutes to go teams switched to long runs.
Fernando Alonso continued to show the pace of Aston Martin going fourth two tenths off the McLaren of Lando Norris. Despite a decent session on track, Norris missed the start of FP2 with an electrical issue, his session ended as it started thanks to a throttle issue which saw his session end early.
Friday practice suggests that Red Bull remain the team to beat this weekend, however the gap to Aston and Ferrari is a lot closer and could potentially challenge. It will not be possible to conclude until next weekend whether the gap has closed or if its due to the unique circuit.
Lewis Hamilton put his Mercedes sixth about half a second behind Norris, the seven time champion looking more comfortable with the teams upgrades. While teammate George Russell could only manage twelfth. Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez was seventh half a second off, despite the Mexican usually being closer on street circuits.
Valtteri Bottas put his Alfa Romeo eighth ahead of the two Alpine’s, Pierre Gasly going just over seven hundredths faster than teammate Esteban Ocon. Behind the top four teams it continued to be close in the midfield with eighth down to eighteenth covered by about a second.
Lance Stroll couldn’t find the pace of teammate Alonso and was roughly half a second off in eleventh. But the second Aston was six thousandths ahead of George Russell, the Mercedes going over a tenth and a half faster than Guanyu Zhou.
Kevin Magnussen was fourteenth going six tenths ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg by six hundredths, Yuki Tsunoda was also ahead of his teammate Nyck de Vries by just over four hundredths. Oscar Piastri was a hundredth behind the Dutchman ahead of the Williams of Alex Albon and Logan SargeAnt.
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