Monaco GP: Leclerc outstands Sainz at FP2

Charles Leclerc set the fastest overall time on the opening day of Spanish Grand Prix practice in Monaco for Ferrari on Thursday, the fifth round of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship season.

Charles Leclerc

Both practice races at Monaco were clinched by the Ferrari drivers. Charles Leclerc who wasn't able to drive at FP1 sets the fastest lap in FP2 leading his teammate Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton. 

What happened in FP2?

In FP2, Verstappen set the early pace at 1m13.499s on medium tires. Hamilton had to abort his first flying lap after cutting the harbor chicane, but equaled 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 tires 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.

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.

Standings:

2021 F1 MONACO GRAND PRIX - FREE PRACTICE RESULTS (2)
POS	DRIVER	NAT.	TEAM	TIME
1	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	1m11.684s
2	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	1m11.796s
3	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1m12.074s
4	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing	1m12.081s
5	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1m12.107s
6	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1m12.379s
7	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1m12.498s
8	Sergio Perez	MEX	Red Bull Racing	1m12.708s
9	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	1m12.746s
10	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1m12.982s
11	Kimi Raikkonen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	1m13.065s
12	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Alpine F1 Team	1m13.175s
13	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1m13.195s
14	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Alpine F1 Team	1m13.199s
15	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1m13.257s
16	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	1m13.509s
17	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1m13.593s
18	Nikita Mazepin	RUS	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1m14.407s
19	Mick Schumacher	GER	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1m14.416s
20	Yuki Tsunoda	JPN	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1m14.829s

-by Amaan Attar

Source: Crash.net