Charles Leclerc can look back on the first training day of the Monaco Grand Prix with satisfaction. After proving to be the fastest driver in the first session, he also finishes at the top in his Ferrari in the second training. Max Verstappen is focusing on the rest of the weekend, finishing the second session in tenth place.
The first twenty minutes of the session are marked by two crashes, resulting in a brief red flag. First, it’s Isack Hadjar who hits the guardrail hard with his left rear wheel in the chicane after exiting the tunnel. Then it’s Oscar Piastri who makes a mistake. The championship leader brakes too late and goes straight on with his McLaren at the first corner. Both drivers have damage, but manage to reach the pits. At the end of the session, Hadjar incurs damage again, but this time without consequences for the rest.
The fastest lap time changes owner at a high pace during the session, the partly new asphalt in Monaco gets faster with each lap. Drivers change positions as quickly as they change tyre compounds from the beginning to the end of the second training hour, and in the meantime, they mainly complain about each other’s driving behaviour. ‘Traffic paradise’, the engineer of Liam Lawson aptly puts it.
Final Phase of the Race: A Closer Look at Power Dynamics
Only in the final phase does some clarity emerge about the power dynamics. More than on the medium tire, Leclerc in the Ferrari shows speed on the soft tire, just as in the first session. In that session, the local hero also topped the timesheet. Teammate Lewis Hamilton is hardly inferior to him. It remains to be seen how much the teams reveal, but Ferrari makes a better impression than expected on the first day in Monaco.
Verstappen’s Performance and McLaren’s Potential
Verstappen, who was second in the first training, does not come close to the top in terms of lap times in the second session. However, there are no major problems, although he does shoot straight ahead at the end of the training. The Dutchman finishes in tenth place. That doesn’t say everything: Verstappen has often shown more speed with the RB21 on Saturday and Sunday than on Friday. The question also arises: what can McLaren do? Piastri and teammate Lando Norris struggle more than expected on the first day of the GP weekend in Monaco and finish with a third and fourth place respectively.
Upcoming Events
On Saturday, there is still a third and final free training on the schedule, followed by the qualification (16:00 CET, which is 14:00 UTC) in the principality. Exactly 24 hours later, it’s time for the eighth GP of this Formula 1 season.
