Formula 1 soon after Imola continues his journey and returns to the Principality for his highly anticipated appointment with history and glam. It will be a very special weekend, given the very close gaps between the three top teams, Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari. Never before on this track is it essential to find a good feeling with the car, especially for qualifying. So let's see how the first free practices went weekend, or the FP1 of the Monaco GP. Home race for Charles Leclerc, but for all the drivers considering that many have their residence here.
The return to the Principality, what the FP1 of the Monaco GP tells us
All the teams immediately took to the track to look for data, particularly with the hard tyre. Only Piastri and Verstappen take to the track with the medium compound. At Imola we saw the Dutchman suffering especially in the final phase of the Grand Prix. But here in Monaco the tires are not a problem. The drivers immediately took to the track not only because in Monaco it is important to become familiar with the track but also to avoid the rain. Driving in the wet in Monaco is perhaps a driver's worst nightmare.
A nightmare that doesn't just concern the track is having to withdraw due to reliability problems. Something that Alpine would like to avoid, given the already disastrous start. After the first minutes of the start of FP1 of the Monaco GP, the French team called Pierre Gasly to the pits due to a possible problem with the Power Unit.
Monaco is a separate Grand Prix, and for the occasion all the teams brought a different, highly loaded wing. New, or recycled as in the case of Mercedes.
Qualifying, as we said, will make the difference and these FP1s already anticipate what we could see. After the first 20 minutes in 4 there are just 79 thousandths. Charles Leclerc, however, manages to take the best lap, reiterating that this weekend there is only one objective, to win. His time is 3 tenths lower than that of his teammate, Carlos Sainz, and 5 tenths lower than Norris. With half an hour to go the top 5 includes Leclerc, with the hard, Hamilton and Verstappen with the medium, followed by Sainz also with the hard and Tsunoda with the medium.
On the soft tyres, the first to set a time were Oscar Piastri, Russell and Tsunoda. In succession others mount the softer compound except for Red Bull and Ferrari who remain with the hard and medium compounds. With less than 20 minutes to go, Pierre Gasly is still in the pits. The Frenchman completed just 6 laps.
15 minutes from the end, debris left by Guanyu Zhou's F1 Stake forces the stewards to interrupt the session, however before the stop the debris was hit by Charles Leclerc, who was now worried about the bottom. The Monegasque had just mounted the medium tyre.
The session after this brief interruption ends with Lewis Hamilton in front of everyone, followed by Oscar Piastri, George Russell, Lando Norris on the soft tyres. The two Red Bulls who did not use the softer compound were outside the top 10.
Here is the top 10 of the FP1 of the Monaco GP
- Hamilton
- Piastres
- Russell
- Norris
- Leclerc
- Alonso
- Stroll
- tsunoda
- Ricciardo
- Sainz
