After a very interesting first free practice session on the streets of Monte Carlo, we had some more Monaco action to come as Practice 2 was just around the corner. Carlos Sainz was the fastest man in FP1, as the Maranello team looked to build on the encouraging performance of the SF-23 with the clear goal of challenging for pole position on Saturday.
But there is just something about the Leclerc family and racing around Monaco that doesn’t add up. Not long before FP2, Arthur Leclerc crashed at the final corner in F2 Qualifying. His brother Charles will be hoping to keep it out of the barriers for the rest of the Formula 1 weekend and will fancy his chances at pole if Ferrari’s pace is anything to go by so far.
Green light on and Practice Two was under way in Monaco. Four teams made up the top four in Practice One, would that battle continue to heat up in this session?
55 mins to go in FP2 and the timing board was lighting up like a Christmas tree in the early stages. It was George Russell who is fastest from Max Verstappen by 0.005s, while Lewis Hamilton was next from Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly. A few moments later we had a gap of just 0.001s between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in favour of the Mercedes driver, but that lasted about 30 seconds though as the Dutchman improved his time to do a 1:13.857. The times were still six tenths of a second slower than Carlos Sainz’s P1 time earlier today at this stage of the second free practice session in Monte Carlo.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection! Click here to enter the F1 online Store and shop securely! And also get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!
48 mins to go and Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz get very close together through the Swimming Pool section: the Spaniard was coming through quickly but had to test his braking at short notice as he came across his dawdling Maranello team-mate. For all the talk of a four-team fight at the front, the two Alpines have just slotted in to fifth and sixth. Esteban Ocon was just a tenth and a half off Max Verstappen’s leading time. Everyone was on the medium tyres, apart from Carlos Sainz who sat third and set his time on the hard tyres. The two Aston Martins were the first cars out on the red-walled tyres.
Lewis Hamilton moved up to fourth on his first quali simulation and Esteban Ocon climbed into second with a great lap: Ocon was 0.376s slower than his former team-mate Fernando Alonso. Midway through the session, Practice One pace setter Carlos Sainz jumped to the top of the timesheet with his first soft tyre run. He pumped in a 1:12.569 to go ahead of Fernando Alonso by two tenths of a second. The Spaniard was enjoying his day in Monaco so far, having been second fastest earlier while still running the hard tyre.
We were still waiting for the Red Bulls to come out for their soft tyre qualifying simulation.
Charles Leclerc could only go third with his first soft tyre effort. And the two Red Bull cars were ready to go out for their first flier on the red tyres: Max Verstappen has to settle for third with his first effort. The Dutchman had to navigate a fair deal of traffic throughout his lap and ends up 0.168s off Carlos Sainz’s leading time, while Sergio Perez could only manage fifth with his first effort.
Max Verstappen went quicker on his second flying lap on the softs. That put him 0.107s ahead of Carlos Sainz. 18 mins to go in FP2 and Charles Leclerc got ahead of his team-mate but narrowly missed out on the fastest time, falling 0.065s short of Verstappen’s leading time.
We see this every year at Monaco. If you clip the inside barrier at the Swimming Pool chicane, you will break your suspension immediately and go straight on into the outside wall. Unfortunately this time it happened to Carlos Sainz, who ended up in the barriers with 15 minutes to go. Carlos misjudged that, but Ferrari should be alright though and the pace of the SF-23 was still solid. After a five-minute delay, Carlos Sainz’s car was cleared and we were back on track again, with 12 minutes of running to finish the session.
Chequered flag was waving and that was it for Friday practice: Max Verstappen ended the day atop the timesheets, finishing up 0.065s ahead of home favourite Charles Leclerc. These are your top ten drivers at the end of Practice Two:
1) Max Verstappen 1:12.462
2) Charles Leclerc +0.065s
3) Carlos Sainz +0.107s
4) Fernando Alonso +0.220s
5) Lando Norris +0.444s
6) Lewis Hamilton +0.498s
7) Sergio Perez +0.529s
8) Valtteri Bottas +0.588s
9) Pierre Gasly +0.627s
10) Esteban Ocon +0.700s
Leave a Reply