Official F1 Journal Formula 1 Friday Round Up - Monaco

© McLaren Media

The Monaco Grand Prix is run slightly differently from other race weekends. F2 and F3 practice was held on Thursday and qualifying for both series was split into two groups, which took place on Friday.​

The Formula 1 schedule follows the same format as a typical race weekend, with Free Practice One and Two taking place on Friday. Both saw Max struggle with pace, Charles dominating and Lewis Hamilton following closely behind him.​

All ten teams brought track-specific upgrades to the race weekend, with most teams changing to circuit-specific rear wings and beam wings to help with the high downforce at the circuit. McLaren also has a special Senna livery for this historic race to commemorate Senna's dominance around these streets.

© Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

Free Practice 1

Top 10 Results
1) Lewis Hamilton   1:12.169
2) Oscar Piastri       1:12.198
3) George Russell   1:12.295
4) Lando Norris       1:12.396
5) Charles Leclerc   1:12.397
6) Fernando Alonso 1:12.775
7) Lance Stroll         1:12.789
8) Yuki Tsunoda       1:12.875
9) Daniel Ricciardo  1:12.901
10) Carlos Sainz      1:12.954

Excitement for Mercedes in the rain threatened Free Practice 1, with Lewis Hamilton finishing fastest and George in third place, with just Oscar Piastri in his McLaren, splitting the two Mercedes. McLaren changed their signature papaya to yellow, navy and green to commemorate Senna. Still, it didn't stop Oscar and Lando from being at the top of the leaderboard for most of FP1, doing 31 and 33 laps on a mix between the hard, medium and soft tyres during the session.​

The same can't be said for Alpine, who faced a significant setback. Pierre Gasly was only able to complete ten laps due to a power unit failure early on in the practice session. Despite their best efforts to fix the issue, Gasly returned to the track with no power, forcing him to return to the pits and not come back onto the track for the rest of the session.

With the circuit evolving each and every lap, the drivers dealt with low grip, the slow corners and trying to find the smallest margins. Charles, Lando, Max and Lewis tested how close they could get to the walls. Zhou scraped the wall slightly, causing debris to fall on the track. Charles unluckily ran over the debris and picked up some floor damage, causing a red flag and a brief pause in running with 15 minutes to go in the session.

Both Red Bull and Ferrari chose to do long runs on the hard and medium tyres, preserving their softs for later in the weekend. This calculated move could potentially give them an advantage in the upcoming races. However, Perez of Red Bull had a setback with a puncture in his left rear medium tyre, forcing him to retreat back to the pits.

Timings for FP1 are a second off last year's pole, making for an exciting qualifying tomorrow.

© Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

Free Practice 2

Top 10 Results
1) Charles Leclerc    1:11.278
2) Lewis Hamilton     1:11.466
3) Fernando Alonso  1:11.753
4) Max Verstappen   1:11.813
5) Lando Norris        1:11.953
6) Carlos Sainz         1:11.962
7) Lance Stroll          1:12.062
8) Sergio Perez        1:12.099
9) Alex Albon            1:12.257
​10) George Russell  1:12.260

Free Practice 2 was dominated by Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari, closely followed by Lewis Hamilton, who was first out on the track to try and keep up his momentum from FP1. Alonso wasn't too far behind either, being just 0.475secs from Charles for most of the second half of the session with his Miami upgraded rear wing.
​
For FP2, the threat of rain was once again on the drivers' minds, with the air temperature cooling. Pierre Gasly was back on track in his Alpine after missing most of FP1 due to a power unit issue.

The session was marked by close calls as several drivers, including Max, Logan, Yuki, Pierre, Lance and Oscar, had nerve-wracking brushes with the walls on the narrow track. Max and Sergio, in particular, were grappling with their Red Bulls, with Max even expressing his discomfort, "I'm jumping like a kangaroo. I'm getting headaches, it's crazy". Sergio, too, was battling with the low car height, leading to ground hits.

With the fastest laps already quicker than last year's pole, how fast can the drivers go around the streets of Monaco in Qualifying tomorrow?

Anny Wooldridge
​Writer @ F1 Journal

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