Monaco GP: Leclerc bosses FP2 with Hamilton second
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was looking in strong form at his home circuit on Friday, topping the afternoon times...
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Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was looking in strong form at his home circuit on Friday, topping the afternoon times in Monaco with almost two tenths in hand over Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton who was best of the rest in FP2.
Fernando Alonso was third quickest for Aston Martin, putting him just ahead of Max Verstappen who was still not happy with the handling of his Red Bull, saying it was "jumping like a kangaroo" at one point.
Verstappen was one of many drivers to have contact with the barrier, with Esteban Ocon, Logan Sargeant and Lance Stroll all having moments but none serious enough to cause any stoppages during the session.
The first session had seen strong starts for Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri, and for their respective team mates George Russell and Lando Norris who packed out the top four. But there had been balance issues for Max Verstappen, power unit problems for Pierre Gasly, and a red flag after contact with the barrier by Zhou Guanyu left debris on track that was collected by Charles Leclerc.
Despite the threat of rain at the end of FP1 it had remained dry since then and the chance of precipitation had fallen to just 20 per cent by the time Hamilton was first to take to the track for the start of second practice. Hamilton clocked in with a time of 1:14.080s on the mediums, but Verstappen soon moved the goalposts by three tenths of a second with his own maiden flier of the afternoon on a set of hards.
Home boy Leclerc then went top with a new time of 1:14.080s in the Ferrari. His time at the top was short before Hamilton regained the advantage and the merry-go-round went for another spin. Russell and Norris joined the fray as Verstappen went 0.044s quicker, then Leclerc found some clear space and improved by a quantum leap to 1:12.372s. That was nine tenths swifter than the Red Bull, and this kept the Monegasque out of reach of Hamilton's next effort.
As Leclerc continued to shave fractions of a second off his time, Logan Sargeant kissed the barriers at Anthony Noghes. While it didn't look too heavy a hit he still headed to the pits to allow the Williams crew to check his suspension. Russell also had his hands full, reporting that "this vibration braking into turn 11 is insane at the moment, can't hold onto the steering wheel" and Verstappen was likewise vexed: "I'm jumping like a kangaroo. man, I'm getting headaches, it's crazy," he complained.
Leclerc wasn't having any such problems and his time was now down to 1:11.573s. That was almost a second quicker than Hamilton, Verstappen and Carlos Sainz at which point he and others pitted to switch to the soft compound. Leclerc cut another three tenths off, keeping him half a second ahead of Verstappen's own first run on the red-walled tyres. Instead it was Fernando Alonso doing faster to reel the Ferrari in as the session reached the halfway point.
Verstappen was still pushing - a little too hard, it turned out, as he hit the barrier with a snap at the second Mirabeau sending him retreating to pit lane. Oscar Piastri and Yuki Tsunoda also reported contact of lesser degrees elsewhere. Even Leclerc had a lock-up at the hairpin and understeered at Portier and was lucky not to do any harm to the SF-24. Hamilton took advantage to move within two tenths despite running a used set of softs, as fifth-placed Norris locked up and ran over the Nouvelle Chicane with his next push.
Esteban Ocon kissed the wall coming out of the chicane, and there was a similar heavy brush for Lance Stroll. The drivers had pushed to the limit and now returned to longer distance runs on mediums for the remaining 20 minutes of the session. There was an incident between Verstappen and Tsunoda where the RB twice held up the Red Bull between the Swimming Pool section and Racasse but the stewards were quick to wave it off as just one of those things. Leclerc was also finding the limits on the mediums, locking up and taking to the escape road at Sainte Devote.
Fortunately there were no serious incidents, and the session came to a quiet conclusion with Leclerc still firmly on top well ahead of Hamilton and Alonso. Degradation did not appear to be an issue with Verstappen easily racking up the laps on his hard compound and Alexander Albon getting the same sort of mileage out of the mediums on the Williams before struggling with wear at the end, as was Hamilton, while both Sauber and RB preserved their sets of the soft compound, as had Piastri.
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