F1 Monaco GP live commentary and updates - FP2
Follow along for updates from second practice at the Monaco Grand Prix
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In other other news, word reaches us that veteran British thespian Anthony Head, who appeared in the likes of Ted Lasso, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and those famous Nescafe Gold Blend commercials of the 1980s, has gone to the great 'meet cute' in the sky at the age of 72.
Just four minutes on the clock so we won't see much lappery, if any, after this.
Max Verstappen had just returned to the track on mediums after clocking a 1m13.194s.
DRAPEAU ROUGE!
Sergio Perez brings his Cadillac to a halt in Casino Square. Smoke was pouring into the cockpit from the front-right brake ducts, which continue to smoke ominously.
Hadjar, by the way, swapped to softs and punched in seven laps on them with a best time of 1m14.087s. That's the best part of nine tenths off his teammate but you can't blame him for leaving a bit of margin after his earlier contretemps with the armco.
Both Ferraris have now headed to the pits, so we imagine the quali sims are over and that leaves them P1 and P2 for now. But Verstappen is circulating on fresh softs - apparently - while Russell is going back out on the softs he's already used.
Antonelli also heading trackward on used softs.
Another locker-upper into the chicane is Lance Stroll, but at least it's the front axle rather than the rear axle for the Aston Martin there. The balance of that car looks uglier than a kebab shop fist fight.
Hamilton flat-spotted his front-left under braking at the tunnel exit, popped back into the pits, and communicated his desire for a bit more front wing angle to his mechanics by gesticulation. They looked confused. Perhaps next time he should communicate via the medium of interpretive dance.
Our data screen now showing Verstappen out on a new set of softs, but it has revised its read-out of his previous set to medium. Sigh.
Whoops! Colapinto has given the barrier at Ste Devote a clout; front-left first, followed by rear-left. Not enough to cause a stoppage, though - he's on his way back to the pits.
Doesn't look like anyone has gone on to an extra set of softs during this phase. Both Mercedes still circulating on the same set, making a 12-lap stint. Gasly has managed 15 laps on his, though his best lap is a humble 1m14.497s.
In more F1 TV graphic madness, Verstappen showing up as being on wets. He's currently in the garage anyway, so plenty of time for the backroom people to hit the right button this time.
Quite remarkable the distance between F1's top tier and the second. Hulkenberg in P7 is nearly a second off the frontrunning pace.
Make that more than a second as Hamilton sets a new best of 1m13.026s.
Leclerc sets a new best lap of all, 1m13.137s. The 12s beckon...
A string of personal-best sectors for Piastri but it's only good for P6 right now - 1m14.088s.
As predicted, Hamilton exits the pits on softs.
F1 TV graphics showing Leclerc as running on mediums still, but our data screen says softs – and as we type, the world TV feed switches to an onboard with Charles and those tyres have red bands.
Russell finally gets a clear-ish lap but it's not quite enough to usurp Max, 0.048s off the Red Bull.
A kiss of the wall for Oscar Piastri on the run towards Portier, where one used to have a nice vista of the Med but now a land reclamation project and luxury apartments for vulgarians blocks the view.
Hadjar is the only driver on track using mediums at the moment, out of sync with the others given his later start to the session. Hamilton likely to rejoin on softs shortly.
Leclerc leaving the garage on softs now.
Hulkenberg also lapping quickly on the softs - relatively speaking. He's P5 but very much second tier, half a second off Verstappen's benchmark.
P3 becomes P4 as Verstappen goes fastest on 1m13.467s. Russell hits traffic in the final sector and bails out of his lap.
Well we spoke too soon - Antonelli's first lap on softs is a 1m13.850s, not enough for better than P3.
Leclerc heads to the pits after 15 laps on those mediums, having clocked the fastest lap yet in this session - 1m13.613s - before he signed off. That's 0.058s quicker than Hamilton in P2.
But the laptimes are set to tumble with others now on softs.
Verstappen, Gasly and Hulkenberg also now going out on softs.
Russell parked after 10 laps, while Antonelli did 11 in total. Now both Mercedes head out again on softs.
Verstappen has pitted after nine laps on the mediums, while Hamilton and Leclerc continue to circulate – 13 laps in so far, as are Bearman, Ocon, Perez and Albon on the same medium compound. Stroll is also 13 laps into his stint on softs.
"My seat keeps clicking" complains Hamilton on the radio. And all last year he was saying he couldn't click with the car...
Before all that transpired, Hamilton usurped Verstappen with a 1m13.729s.
F1 TV cuts to the scene – yes, Norris is out of the car. It's being dealt with under a virtual safety car for now. Replays from the onboard camera indicates some sort of gearbox gremlin as he braked and downshifted at the tunnel exit.
The marshals are making unusually heavy weather of removing this car. All F1 cars have a button which disconnects the clutch, enabling it to be pushed away, but that clearly hasn't worked (or the marshals couldn't find it). They've lifted the car car onto a trolley to push it clear.
Our GPS trace shows Norris's car stopped at the chicane.
And, yes, Hadjar leaves his garage. "Thank you guys" he says on the radio.
Norris the first to return to the pits but he's now back out again after a brief adjustment, and running on the same set of mediums.
Verstappen P1 again, 1m14.008s – we're not far away from breaking into the 13s...
Hadjar is now in the cockpit of his Red Bull so we're not far away from having all cars on track.
Russell and Antonelli P4 and P6 for now, but we're used to the spectacle of Mercedes not showing its hand until later in the session.
Valtteri Bottas misses the apex of the chicane but continues without harm.
Yes, Verstappen's reign is ended quickly by the two Ferraris – Leclerc quickest for now.
Verstappen goes quickest of these opening sallies with a 1m15.993s but it's very early days yet, of course.
Hadjar's car still not out on track but the F1 TV feed reveals it's undergoing final preparations. We can expect to see Isack shortly.
Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso both out on track, and running softs. We speculate that even thus equipped, they will not trouble the top 10.
By: Stuart Codling
