Charles Leclerc topped both Friday practice sessions at Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix, eclipsing Oscar Piastri’s McLaren in an incident-filled second session.
Leclerc headed into the weekend expecting a tricky event for Ferrari, with his 2025 F1 car seemingly not possessing the strengths that allowed Leclerc to secure a home victory last year.
But Leclerc looked quick throughout Friday, going quickest in FP1 despite a clash with Lance Stroll and then topping second practice too - topping the early part of the session on hard Pirelli tyres (above) before going even faster on the tricky soft C6 compound.
In FP2, Piastri got the closest - just 0.038s adrift of Leclerc’s 1m11.355s - but he set his lap later in the session than Leclerc when track conditions were theoretically better.
Two red flags
Piastri suffered an uncharacteristic crash into the barriers when he got his entry into Sainte Devote wrong just over 40 minutes into FP2.
He nosed his McLaren into the barriers, losing his front wing and causing an immediate red flag stoppage.
Piastri was able to reverse his McLaren out of the barriers and get his car back to the garage. He was sent out shortly after the session resumed.
That was the second red flag of the session after Isack Hadjar clipped the barriers at the Nouvelle Chicane with the rear-left corner of his Racing Bulls.
Hadjar did manage to get his car back to the pits and did rejoin the session, but then suffered a second wall hit late in the session when he clipped the barrier at Sainte Devote, picking up the advertising material along the way.
Who else was quick?
Behind Leclerc and Piastri, their team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris came close behind to complete an all-Ferrari/McLaren top four.
Then came the two Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Hadjar, the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso and the Williams of Alex Albon.
Kimi Antonelli was ninth ahead of the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda, split by just 0.004s but seven tenths behind Leclerc.
George Russell was 12th for Mercedes ahead of Carlos Sainz’s Williams.
Ollie Bearman will face the stewards after the session for an alleged red flag infringement.
Tsunoda was cleared shortly after the chequered flag for a yellow flag infringement.
Results
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m11.355s
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.038s
- Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.105s
- Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.322s
- Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +0.468s
- Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +0.487s
- Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +0.535s
- Alex Albon (Williams) +0.563s
- Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.647s
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.713s
- Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) +0.717s
- George Russell (Mercedes) +0.737s
- Carlos Sainz (Williams) +0.796s
- Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) +0.879s
- Ollie Bearman (Haas) +0.904s
- Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) +0.907s
- Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +1.049s
- Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +1.157s
- Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1.186s
- Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +2.060s
