In FP1, Sergio Perez was fastest going as tenth faster than the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz. While in FP2 while Charles Leclerc led a Ferrari one-two after going a tenth faster than Sainz. You need to believe that Ferrari being at the pointy end in both Thursday\u2019s sessions is a bit of a surprise, but we know Monaco is a unique race and one where grip and downforce outweigh straight-line speed.<\/p>\n
At Imola and in the final sector in Barcelona, we did see Ferrari look quite strong and you need to believe that is something to do with the higher level of downforce needed at Monaco rather than straight-line speed. However, you still need to believe that we haven\u2019t seen everything from Mercedes and Red Bull the two leading teams this season.<\/p>\n
Looking at the times in FP2, Sir Lewis Hamilton was only seven-thousandths of a second faster than Max Verstappen. This is where we know the battle has been in the first four races this season, and following the session Verstappen says that Red Bull \u201cWe are too slow, and not just by a little bit; I think quite a bit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Adding, \u201cWe really need to find some pace. Everyone has traffic, so you need to look at optimum lap times or optimum sectors and we are quite off. It also didn\u2019t feel great to drive. Normally I\u2019m quite comfortable in the car, quite easily get to a pace but it all takes too long, [it’s] just not how I like it.\u201d<\/p>\n
I think if that is true and if we get a normal qualifying on Saturday, and Ferrari drop behind Mercedes and Red Bull it could be a very close fight for pole position. But there may be a feeling that Ferrari could lead the midfield ahead of McLaren, in Portimao, there was some speculation that this could be the battle for third in the constructors.<\/p>\n
Although relative fuel levels and engine modes vary between teams during practice, with Ferrari known to run more competitively than some, their advantage on Thursday was still noteworthy.<\/p>\n
Perez said he believed Ferrari pace was genuine telling reporters, \u201cYes, they\u2019re pretty strong. I mean Charles missed FP1 and he still made it all the way to P1 so I think they seem to be pretty strong out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carlos Sainz also performed really well in bot sessions finishing second, he believes that Ferrari are \u201cvery close\u201d to being a threat in Monaco. Adding \u201cWe definitely look very close to being a genuine threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we need to wait until FP3 because things change a lot from Thursday to Saturday here. There are some drivers that stand back a bit on Thursday, just because they want to take it easy, and then suddenly on Saturday, like Lewis always does, he\u2019s super quick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton also believes that Ferrari’s pace was genuine, Hamilton replied: “I’m seeing what you’re seeing. I’m generally just focused on my job. It looks like it. We’ll see.”<\/p>\n
If Ferrari can be there in qualifying, they have a good chance on Sunday to be fighting for points.<\/p>\n
The battle in the midfield this weekend could be between McLaren and Alpha Tauri, Lando Norris continuing his strong performances as is Pierre Gasly. Norris was seven-tenths ahead of Sebastian Vettel in FP1, while Gasly spilt the Mercedes in fourth a tenth ahead of Hamilton.<\/p>\n
We know as we have said with the leading teams Monaco can close the gaps. In the opening four races that the theme has been that close battle and not knowing who will be on top. This could be important because we know anything can happen around Monte Carlo.<\/p>\n
I think McLaren have been the team that has delivered the results this year when they have had the opportunity, but Alpha Tauri has had a stronger car at this type of circuit. In FP2, Norris was two tenths faster than Gasly which we have started to expect this season.<\/p>\n
Gasly said \u201cIt\u2019s been a very good day for us. In terms of pace, it was great and this morning was a strong way to start here in Monaco \u2013 I felt confident in the car and could push hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis afternoon we finished within the top ten, so we\u2019re still pretty pleased with that, but it was a lot harder in the car. Hopefully I can work with the guys over the next day to improve in the areas where we are struggling but generally, we are quite happy with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gasly\u2019s teammate Yuki Tsunoda made an early exit from FP2 when he crashed at the Swimming Pool with him finishing in twentieth, explaining what happened, the Japanese driver said \u201cI think I didn\u2019t push too much hard in entry, I think just lost the grip in the end. A lot of degradation there I think and a couple of gusts of wind [and] I lost completely the rear between Turns 15 and 16, and I just had to finish the session.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had two [sets of] softs for Saturday so I think it\u2019s not the worst-case or the end of the world. Just, I have to prepare more for Saturday and try to put it all together,\u201d he surmised.<\/p>\n
Norris added \u201cFrom a performance side of it, I was pretty happy with today, I was comfortable with the car, which is very important around here. But we also have some things to improve upon\u2026 into Saturday to try and gain that little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe car\u2019s not super-easy to drive\u2026 especially the kind of corners where you definitely don\u2019t want to be going over the limits, so over the hill into Turn 3, the car can get a bit nervous sometimes, and it doesn\u2019t give you the best feeling as a driver.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sebastian Vettel has explained his struggles with a watering eye during practice in Monaco, saying it felt like it was “bleeding”. The Aston Martin driver was heard on team radio during second practice for the Monaco Grand Prix reporting that he was struggling to see out of one of his eyes.<\/p>\n
After the session, Vettel explained that the issue had got progressively worse throughout FP2, and revealed that his Aston Martin crew had made him a paper eye patch as a joke.<\/p>\n
Saying \u201cI never had my eye bleeding, but it felt like a little bit. I don’t know what was going on. First run, something got into my eye, and it got worse on the second run. So the team was quite nice and they made me this [eye patch]. So I think I’ll keep that and it’ll keep me safe for the rest of the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his FP2 session, where he finished tenth two tenths ahead of teammate Lance Stroll, he said \u201cIn the afternoon, I lost a bit of view. But overall, it’s OK. It will be tight, it’s always tight here, and it’s obviously tight in the midfield.<\/p>\n
Adding \u201cIdeally we can keep that up, and get everything together. It’s all about Saturday afternoon. We tried some bits. Like Monaco [as] usual, you always have a bit of stop and go, not always getting the laps for everyone. It will matter on Saturday afternoon to get everything in that one lap.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The main news stories and analysis from practice ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix. As well as a look at what this means both for this weekend and the championship battle across the field, as well as for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7697,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,23],"tags":[47,418,664,754,1363,1364,1443,1569],"class_list":["post-9133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-analysis","category-this-grand-prix","tag-47","tag-circuit-de-monaco","tag-f1","tag-formula-one","tag-monaco-gp","tag-monaco-grand-prix","tag-notebook","tag-practice"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}