Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton led the way during Friday’s F1 Monaco Grand Prix free practice sessions. Leclerc topped FP1 after two red flags, while Hamilton finished fastest in FP2 ahead of his Ferrari teammate and Max Verstappen.
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FP1
The F1 Monaco Grand Prix weekend started in sunny weather, in this way all the drivers tried to find the pace as soon as possible. The first mistake was made by the home hero Charles Leclerc, who had a longer break distance and went out to the run-off area.
At the early stage of the session Monegasque was struggling, meanwhile his teammate, Lewis Hamilton set the pace with 1:15.617 on hard compounds ahead of the championship leader Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen.
Then came Leclerc, who sped up the velocity and topped the chart by half a second on hards, too – at the halftime he was leading confidentiality followed by Hamilton.
In the sequel the drivers started to change the hards to mediums. Around 25 minutes were left when the session had to be interrupted, because of Isack Hadjar’s crash.
For the final 15 minutes everybody put up the mediums and tried to beat Antonelli’s 1:14.537. First Hamilton then Leclerc jumped to the top, the local driver ran 1:13.978.
At the end Fernando Alonso hit the wall and a piece of the Aston Martin’s front wing stayed on the track. It meant another red flag and the FP1 finished.
Leclerc topped, followed by Hamilton and Antonelli.
FP2
At the beginning of the second free practice the drivers went out on medium tires. The track seemed crowded, when the lights became green, therefore it was hard to complete clean laps.
Hamilton opened a 1:14.306, which was the best at the start, but Leclerc seemed faster by 66-hundreds after the first shots. The track got faster, which meant soon 1:13.729 from Hamilton.
15 minutes after the green lights, Norris stopped due to technical issues, a VSC period and a short break. However, when the pace got faster the Ferrari drivers were fighting with the clock.
At the half, for a while Verstappen seemed so close, when he put the softs. The two Ferraris also changed the compounds, Leclerc and Hamilton came back to the top of the chart.
5 minutes before the finish, Sergio Perez stopped the car on the track, which caused a red flag interruption. The FP2 finished this way.
Hamilton was the fastest, 0,111 ahead of Leclerc. Verstappen came in 3rd.
The full results of the Free Practices according to FIA.com:
