THE iconic Monaco Grand Prix is taking place across THIS WEEKEND.
Max Verstappen triumphed in Monaco last year, and will be aiming to extend his six-point lead over Charles Leclerc in the Drivers Standings.
And this year’s scenic street race may be one of the last, with the track unable to match the lucrative sums paid by the likes of Qatar and Saudi Arabia for the right to host a race.
- Start time: Practice from 1pm today
- Race time: 2pm, Sunday
- TV/ live stream: Sky Sports F1
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We are green again
The session has resumed after that red flag while repairs were made to the barriers.
Ricciardo is back in the team’s garage starting his debrief into what went wrong.
Meanwhile, the other 19 cars will now complete the remainder of this session, which has 36 minutes left to run.
Red Flag – Ricciardo has crashed out
The Aussie is OK, but he has planted his McLaren into the barrier just by the swimming pool.
It is the technical section of the track but you can see he lost control during his flying lap and that sent him into the crash barriers.
Thankfully they were the impact-absorbing Tecpro ones, unlike the ones we saw in Miami.
Ricciardo has radioed the team to say he’s ok and will explain where he went wrong once he gets back to the garage.
Tsunoda has a lock up
A mistake from the AlphaTauri man as he locks up and comes to a stop at turn one.
He’s kept that car running but that was an easy mistake to make. He’s damaged his tyres in the process too.
He says out the radio “the vibration is really bad. I cannot drive.”
FP2 is go
Green light in the pitlane as the cars ferry out on track. The two Williams drivers are first out.
Verstappen, Perez and Norris are also in the first group to edge their way around this historic track.
All set for second practice
It is still incredibly warm with the local time approaching 5pm, this is going to be a key session for Mercedes.
They had just two hours to dissect their opening practice and make the necessary changes in time for FP2.
Both their drivers found it hard going in the earlier session with bouncing a problem.
Have the team had enough time to find out what the issue is and fix it?
FP1 is done – Leclerc leads
The Ferrari man heads the timesheets for the opening practice in Monaco – but it is close.
Perez in his Red Bull is just 0.039 seconds behind him, and Sainz 0.070 seconds behind his teammate.
Verstappen in fourth, Norris fifth and Gasly sixth.
Russell 8th and Hamilton 10th will be a concern for Mercedes and will require adjustments in time for FP2 in two hours.
Hamilton unhappy
He radios his team to complain about the handling of his car.
Monaco is a bumpy track of course, but maybe those “It’s so bouncy out here, man. I’m f****** losing my mind!”
He’s also requested elbow pads for the second session later in the day.
Merc will need to get to the bottom of this bouncing as there was hope that it was fixed after Barcelona.
10 Minutes to go
Final few laps of this session and we have seen the usual suspects are quickest. Ferrari again have the pace this weekend, hotly followed by Red Bull.
Mercedes still have some work to do, not helped by the bumpy track.
There are some encouraging signs for Norris after his illness too.
BIG lock-up for Verstappen
He goes off the track at Saint Devote and ruins a set of tyres in the process.
Sainz also has a big moment as he is forced to slam on the brakes as he encounters traffic in the final few corners.
You just get the feeling, this new generation of F1 cars are just too big for this circuit. Again, Sunday could be a complete mess.
News from rubber-lovers Pirelli
The Italian tyre-supplier point out that only two drivers have used the soft compound so far – they are the ones with the red branding around the side and the quickest set, but also the least durable.
Lap times continue to drop
This time Lando Norris goes top. The McLaren man has been suffering from tonsillitis this week but seems to be ok in the car.
I saw him just before the session to ask him how he was feeling, he said he was OK.
Sure he will feel a lot better after that flying lap. Decent time of 1:15.056.
Leclerc’s pole lap from last year was 1:10.346, but that was in the lighter cars.
Flying lap from Hamilton puts him second
He has been on to his team and radioed that he would like to make some adjustments to help dial in the performance.
That said, he seems to already found a decent base level and pops in a time that is good enough for second, before being bumped down to third.
His teammate, George Russell, is down in 12th place at the moment just approaching the halfway stage of the session.
One for weather fans…
The air temp is 30.6. Humidity 33%, track temp is 54.7 and the pressure at 1015.0
That said, rain is forecast for Sunday, although the outlook for tomorrow looks good.
Here we go, we are up and running again
The Haas has been pushed out of the way and we can crack on with practice.
It is Verstappen, Leclerc and Sainz at the top.
Bottas has yet to set a time in his Alfa Romeo, Latifi and Ocon are at the bottom of the timesheets.
Red Flag – Schumacher has stopped in the pitlane
The Haas man has come to stop at the pit entry – and blocked it, so the stewards have rightly red flagged the session.
That final sector is catching a few drivers out. Maybe it is the heat/tyres/anything else, but it could just be them getting to grips with these wider cars through the narrowest parts of the track.
It is certainly going to be a bit of a squeeze in Sunday’s race.
Leclerc sets the early pace
The Monaco-born racer is using his local knowledge and sets the quickest time so far in his Ferrari. Still early days but it is Leclerc, Verstappen, Sainz, Norris, Hamilton.
Hamilton is reporting “bouncing” over the team’s radio
In Barcelona, they looked to have cured that problem. Surely it has not returned at this, the slowest track on the calendar?
Make that 19 – Lewis Hamilton joins the track
ICYMI, the seven time world champion has been granted another month’s grace in the ridiculous ‘bling ban’ from the FIA.
He’s got his nose stud in and will be allowed to keep it in for this weekend, Azerbaijan and Canada.
It is all looking rather desperate from the FIA, who say drivers who are married can retain their wedding rings.
All seems a bit silly to me when they are risking their lives driving cars around at 200mph, but there you go…
Back to practice…
Green light in Monte Carlo for FP1
And already we have a busy track with 18 out of 20 drivers all out on track for the opening of this Monaco Grand Prix.
New, wider cars this year are looking HUGE.
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
