Leclerc raises the bar in Monaco as Red Bull struggle in FP2
F1 News
Charles Leclerc has topped the second free practice session and looks favourite to take pole position in Saturday's qualifying for the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix. All teams will make changes overnight, but the man from Monaco was always the driver who raised the bar and even went quicker than Max Verstappen's pole time 12 months ago. Red Bull Racing struggled throughout the session with ride height and bouncing problems.
Lewis Hamilton completed a strong day for Mercedes with a P2 time. George Russell struggled with some vibrations and finished in P10. Fernando Alonso rounded out the top three. It was a mixed day for McLaren. Oscar Piastri hit the barrier and spent a lot of time in the garage. He finished outside the top ten but teammate Lando Norris finished 5th.
Sainz finished in 6th, over six-tenths behind his teammate. Lance Stroll ensured two Aston Martin cars featured inside the top 10. Perez, Albon and Russell completed the fastest 10 lap times.
How it happened
Lewis Hamilton topped the first free practice session ahead of the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix. The seven-time World Champion demonstrated some good pace to top the session, edging out Oscar Piastri by less than one-tenth of a second. George Russell finished third to produce positive results for Mercedes.
But Mercedes shouldn't get too excited. Neither Red Bull nor Ferrari demonstrated their top performance on the soft tyres during FP1. The jump from medium tyres to soft proved significant for most teams, and so the soft tyre performance from Red Bull and Ferrari was highly anticipated going into FP2.
Hamilton returned to the top of the timesheets after the first set of laps on the medium tyres but was soon bettered by Leclerc, Verstappen and Russell. The younger Mercedes driver then reported some vibrations while driving and even suggested he couldn’t hold the steering wheel. He sometimes missed the Nouvelle Chicane.
The names changed frequently at the top of the timesheets, but it was Leclerc who was always raising the bar. With 42 minutes left on the clock, he was the first driver to dip into the 1:11s on the medium tyre. In fact, he was just two-tenths shy of Verstappen’s 2023 pole time.
Verstappen put on the soft tyre and finished two-tenths short of Leclerc’s top time on the medium tyres. Leclerc then put on the softs himself and went purple in all three sectors. Both Verstappen and Perez reported issues with the ride height on the team radio. The Dutchman hit the barrier hard with his rear tyre but was able to carry on around to the pits and return to the track. The drivers then completed their race simulations ahead of Sunday's Grand Prix.