Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen have gone fastest across the first two practice sessions ahead of Sunday night’s Monaco Grand Prix.
In a race where single-lap speed means everything, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Red Bull, and Mercedes have all shown great pace in this regard, hinting at the possibility Red Bull’s period of domination to start the year may be under threat.
The low-speed corners of the iconic Monaco track have worked wonders for contenders, with Sainz lapping fastest over Fernando Alonso by .338 seconds in FP1, with Lewis Hamilton a further three-tenths back. Sergio Perez was the fastest Red Bull in the session, only .003 seconds off Hamilton’s time for fourth.
Verstappen and Mercedes’ George Russell were amoung several competitors complaining about their car setup in the opening run. The defending champion only managed sixth-fastest, behind Charles Leclerc, while Russell could only manage 15th.
Lando Norris was the surprise package of FP1, going seventh quickest, ahead of Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and Alex Albon, who rounded out the top 10.
Albon was, however, the cause of a late red flag in the run, hitting the Turn 1 wall and sustaining significant damage. This saw proceedings brought to an end three minutes early.
Nico Hulkenberg was the other driver running into difficulty, collecting the Turn 13 wall at the chicane and damaging his left rear. He was able to limp back to the pits, but a red flag was called for to repair the barriers.
Timings were much tighter in FP2, with Verstappen returning to familiar grounds atop the leaderboard. Leclerc was second fastest, only .065 seconds off the pace, while his teammate Sainz was third, a further .042 seconds off that.
Sainz was another victim of the unforgiving circuit this time out, the Spaniard hitting the right-hand wall at Turn 15 and sliding into the barriers at Turn 16, damaging his car and bringing out the red flags.
Alonso was to go fourth fastest in FP2, while Norris continued to look the surprise package of the day in fifth. Hamilton topped Perez for sixth place, ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Piere Gasly and Ocon, who rounded out the top 10, respectively.
Russell improved to 12th quickest, one spot behind Stroll, while Albon was able to return to the track for the final 10 minutes following repairs from his FP1 crash.
Formula 1 returns for a further practice session at 10.15 pm tonight, with qualifying to follow at 1.15 am. The Monaco Grand Prix starts at 12.45 am on Monday.
