Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc set the pace in the second free practice session of the Monaco Grand Prix, narrowly beating Lewis Hamilton for the fastest time at his home circuit. Charles Leclerc’s lap time of 1:11.278 put him ahead of FP1 leader Lewis Hamilton, dipping below the 1:11.365 pole time from the 2023 race. Fernando Alonso secured third place for Aston Martin, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen struggled with significant bouncing issues, likening it to a “kangaroo,” which gave him headaches. Despite this, MaxVerstappen managed to take fourth place, while his teammate Sergio Perez ended up in eighth, also dealing with vibrations. The session saw numerous minor wall-strikes but no red flags.
With rain threatening, Hamilton was the first out on medium tires, followed by Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen on hard tires. The Dutchman initially set the pace with a 1:13.775 on his C3 tires, but Hamilton and Leclerc soon exchanged fastest laps on their C4 medium rubber.
The Ferrari drivers whittled the benchmark down from Lewis Hamilton’s 1:13.309 to Charles Leclerc’s 1:11.573, almost a second clear of Hamilton in P2 and 1.150 seconds ahead of Verstappen, who continued to complain about the bouncing.
The field then switched to the C5 soft tires for qualifying simulations. Perez described the bumps as “horrendous” after clipping the Massanet wall. Leclerc improved his time by 0.295 seconds, posting a session-topping 1:11.278.
On his second attempt, Charles Leclerc set a purple Sector 1 but ran wide at Portier, abandoning the lap. He also caused a brief yellow flag late in the session after running wide at Sainte Devote. Hamilton aborted his first soft tire lap but rebounded with a series of personal bests to finish 0.188 seconds behind Leclerc, marking a positive day for the three-time Monaco winner.
Alonso took third, followed by Verstappen, Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll, Alex Albon, and George Russell. Russell, driving the second Mercedes, complained of severe braking vibrations at the sea-front chicane and finished in 10th place.
Yuki Tsunoda was 11th for Red Bull, with Oscar Piastri not getting a soft tire run after hitting the wall. Tsunoda was the first driver to clock a time over a second down on Leclerc, 1.071 seconds off the pace.
Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg sandwiched Esteban Ocon in 13th, 14th, and 15th positions respectively. Daniel Ricciardo, the 2018 Monaco winner, was 16th, 1.299 seconds down on Leclerc and two-tenths slower than Tsunoda, but also on medium tires.
Pierre Gasly, who missed most of FP1 with a wastegate problem on his Alpine’s power unit, returned to take 17th. Logan Sargeant clipped the inside wall at Anthony Noghes early on and finished 18th. The two Stake drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, ended 19th and 20th, respectively, with Bottas 1.779 seconds down on Charles Leclerc and Zhou 2.495 seconds off the pace, both on medium tires.
A very encouraging second free practice session for Scuderia Ferrari on the streets of Monte Carlo, especially with Charles Leclerc, who is determined to put behind him the bad luck from the previous editions and do everything possible to secure pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix, the first key step towards a victory in front of his home fans.
Here are the final results from the second free practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix:
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