Hamilton fastest as Ferrari dominate Monaco practice

Lewis Hamilton set the pace as Ferrari dominated Friday practice at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Hamilton led Charles Leclerc to a one-two in the second session, the seven-time champion 0.111 seconds clear of his team-mate.

The positions were reversed in the first session, when Leclerc headed Hamilton by 0.266secs.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was third fastest in both, followed by the Mercedes drivers, with George Russell ending the day fourth fastest and 0.124secs quicker than championship leader Kimi Antonelli.

The Italian, who leads Russell by 43 points after the Briton’s rertirement from the last race in Canada, was complaining about the car feeling unpredictable in the middle sector of the lap, the section from Mirabeau to Tabac including the harbour-front chicane.

Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar recovered well from a crash in first practice to set sixth fastest time, ahead of the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, whose team appeared to be struggling through the day.

Team-mate Lando Norris, who won this race last year on his way to a first world title, stopped on track with a technical problem early in the session and ended up 19th fastest.

Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto were best of the rest after the top four teams, with Haas driver Oliver Bearman completing the top 10.

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The second session was relatively incident-free, despite a number of drivers flirting with the barriers, although there was a late red flag when Sergio Perez stopped his Cadillac at Casino Square with his front brakes on fire.

The Mexican’s stoppage, in tandem with Norris’ and the teams’ desire to focus on raw performance for qualifying because of the difficulty of overtaking in Monaco, meant there were no meaningful comparisons of the cars’ race pace on longer runs.

In the first session, Hadjar lost control on the entry to the second Swimming Pool chicane, the rear swinging around and spinning him into the barriers on the exit.

And Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso rescued what could have been a high-speed crash at the harbour front chicane.

The rear flicked sideways as he went over the crest at the start of the braking point, and as he corrected, the car fishtailed, sending the front towards the barriers.

Although the incident broke the car’s front-wind endplate, Alonso kept it largely under control and out of the barriers as it slid wildly up the kerb on the outside of the circuit.

Aston Martin had a difficult time in the second session, Alonso ending up 20th fastest and team-mate Lance Stroll slowest of all, and 0.880secs off the Spanish veteran.