Formula 1 Monaco GP
Grand Prix practice results: Ferrari’s Leclerc fastest in Monaco
Charles Leclerc set the fastest overall time on the opening day of Monaco Grand Prix practice for Ferrari on Thursday, the fifth round of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship season.
Charles Bradley
Edited: May 20, 2021, 5:39 PM
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Both Thursday practice sessions in Monaco have each been cut to one hour in 2021, instead of the usual 90 minutes each.
FP1 was topped by Red Bull's Sergio Perez, and Leclerc was fastest in FP2 – leading a Ferrari 1-2.
Monaco Grand Prix FP1 results: Perez fastest from Sainz
Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval 1 Sergio Perez
Red Bull 36 1'12.487 2 Carlos Sainz Jr.
Ferrari 32 1'12.606 0.119 0.119 3 Max Verstappen
Red Bull 39 1'12.648 0.161 0.042 4 Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri 37 1'12.929 0.442 0.281 5 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes 34 1'12.995 0.508 0.066 6 Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes 36 1'13.131 0.644 0.136 7 Lando Norris
McLaren 31 1'13.236 0.749 0.105 8 Sebastian Vettel
Aston Martin 33 1'13.732 1.245 0.496 9 Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri 39 1'13.746 1.259 0.014 10 Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo 31 1'14.081 1.594 0.335 11 Lance Stroll
Aston Martin 33 1'14.090 1.603 0.009 12 Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo 27 1'14.106 1.619 0.016 13 Fernando Alonso
Alpine 37 1'14.205 1.718 0.099 14 Nicholas Latifi
Williams 41 1'14.268 1.781 0.063 15 Daniel Ricciardo
McLaren 36 1'14.281 1.794 0.013 16 Esteban Ocon
Alpine 37 1'14.320 1.833 0.039 17 Nikita Mazepin
Haas 33 1'14.616 2.129 0.296 18 Mick Schumacher
Haas 35 1'14.801 2.314 0.185 19 George Russell
Williams 35 1'14.840 2.353 0.039 20 Charles Leclerc
Ferrari 4 1'19.618 7.131 4.778 View full results
What happened in Free Practice 1?
Carlos Sainz set the early pace for Ferrari at 1m14.457s on medium tyres, lowering it to 1m13.639s and 1m13.388s as the track rubbered-in. Sainz’s running in this session was doubly important as Ferrari lost Leclerc with a gearbox failure after a handful of laps.
Unlike the majority of teams, Red Bull evaluated the hard tyres initially, Red Bull's Max Verstappen having one flying lap ruined by Haas’s Nikita Mazepin at the Swimming Pool. Verstappen was fourth in the early going, behind Sainz and the Mercedes duo.
Once he worked his way clear of the traffic, Verstappen leapt to P1 after 28 minutes – despite using the hard tyre – but was topped by Valtteri Bottas just after the halfway mark with a lap of 1m13.131s. Lewis Hamilton then beat that with 1m12.995s – both Mercs using the mediums.
Sainz went back to the top on 1m12.965s with 25 minutes remaining, before Pierre Gasly topped it with 1m12.929s as AlphaTauri ran early on soft tyres. Sainz then hit the wall on the exit of the Swimming Pool, sending the sole Ferrari into the garage.
Read Also:
- Sainz: Ferrari "very close" to being genuine F1 threat in Monaco
- Hamilton surprised by "really strong" Ferrari pace in Monaco
Verstappen went P1 on mediums with a lap of 1m12.648s, a tenth clear of Perez who was using softs. On his second attempt on the softs, Perez went P1 on 1m12.536s, and the repaired car of Sainz bounced back to P2, 0.07s down, the fastest of the medium users.
In the closing seconds of the session, Perez improved his quickest time to 1m12.487s.
Verstappen was third, within two tenths of Perez, ahead of Gasly (set on softs), Hamilton, Bottas and Lando Norris, who was running in McLaren’s smart new Gulf Oils livery. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) and Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen.
Fernando Alonso hit the wall at the final corner, damaging his Alpine’s front wing. Elsewhere, Raikkonen locked up and straightlined Sainte Devote, something the Alonso also did with 20 minutes remaining.
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Monaco Grand Prix FP2 results: Leclerc fastest from Sainz
Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval 1 Charles Leclerc
Ferrari 30 1'11.684 2 Carlos Sainz Jr.
Ferrari 32 1'11.796 0.112 0.112 3 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes 28 1'12.074 0.390 0.278 4 Max Verstappen
Red Bull 27 1'12.081 0.397 0.007 5 Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes 32 1'12.107 0.423 0.026 6 Lando Norris
McLaren 24 1'12.379 0.695 0.272 7 Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri 28 1'12.498 0.814 0.119 8 Sergio Perez
Red Bull 24 1'12.708 1.024 0.210 9 Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo 28 1'12.746 1.062 0.038 10 Sebastian Vettel
Aston Martin 26 1'12.982 1.298 0.236 11 Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo 31 1'13.065 1.381 0.083 12 Fernando Alonso
Alpine 27 1'13.175 1.491 0.110 13 Lance Stroll
Aston Martin 26 1'13.195 1.511 0.020 14 Esteban Ocon
Alpine 28 1'13.199 1.515 0.004 15 Daniel Ricciardo
McLaren 26 1'13.257 1.573 0.058 16 George Russell
Williams 32 1'13.509 1.825 0.252 17 Nicholas Latifi
Williams 31 1'13.593 1.909 0.084 18 Nikita Mazepin
Haas 26 1'14.407 2.723 0.814 19 Mick Schumacher
Haas 25 1'14.416 2.732 0.009 20 Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri 11 1'14.829 3.145 0.413 View full results
What happened in Free Practice 2?
In FP2, Verstappen set the early pace at 1m13.499s on medium tyres. Hamilton had to abort his first flying lap after cutting the harbour chicane, but equalled Verstappen’s time to the thousandth of a second at his second attempt – also using mediums.
Verstappen then set 1m13.241s, but hit traffic at the end of his lap, as Hamilton produced 1m12.772s to gap Verstappen by almost half a second. Hamilton improved to 1m12.569s, with Verstappen getting to within 0.232s. Sainz then split them, going P2 on the hard tyre at 1m12.749s, before Bottas knocked him back to third.
Bottas and Hamilton switched to the soft tyres just before the halfway point, Bottas setting 1m12.107 and Hamilton on 1m12.280s after a couple of big slides. Sainz, now using the soft, beat them all with 1m11.796s, with Hamilton and Verstappen failing to get within a quarter of a second.
Read Also:
- Verstappen: Red Bull 'very weak' compared to Ferrari
- Vettel explains 'eye bleeding' comment during Monaco practice
Despite missing most of FP1, Leclerc jumped up to P1 with 18 minutes to go, unleashing 1m11.684s to beat his teammate by 0.112s to make it a Ferrari 1-2. Hamilton was third, ahead of Verstappen and Bottas. Norris, Gasly, Perez, Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) and Vettel rounded out the top 10.
Haas F1’s Mick Schumacher hit the wall at Massenet, and was forced to stop before he got back to the pits due to the damage to his right-rear corner. The session was red flagged with less than five minutes remaining.
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