Charles Leclerc ended up fastest in practice F1 Monaco GP in FP1, FP2 and FP3, with the likes of McLaren in the mix too amid red flag stoppages.
FP1 –
Home favourite Charles Leclerc set the pace during Friday’s opening practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix, bouncing back from an early clash with Lance Stroll to lead the way over Red Bull rival Max Verstappen and McLaren racer Lando Norris.
With the sun shining down and yachts filling the harbour, the Principality looked resplendent as Formula 1’s 10 teams and 20 drivers gathered for an initial hour-long hit of running around some of the most famous streets in motorsport. Unsurprisingly, plenty of cars were quick to head out at 1330 local time to get a feel for the track conditions – a combination of Pirelli’s soft C6, medium C5 and hard C4 tyres being used across the early installation laps and short runs.
There was some drama only a couple of minutes in when Leclerc locked up and went deep at Mirabeau Haute, but he managed to avoid any damage, reverse his Ferrari out of the run-off area and continue on his way. Leclerc would not be so fortunate a few moments later, though, when he ran into the back of Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin – which had moved aside for another car before coming back onto the racing line – under braking for the hairpin.
When the session resumed, with Stroll sidelined due to his broken rear suspension and a gearbox change, drivers picked up where they left off and began to push a little harder – Norris holding the P1 time of 1m 12.290s (on softs) at the halfway mark over Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri. There was also a sign of things to come in Qualifying – particularly Q1 – as drivers squabbled for track position, leaving Pierre Gasly frustrated by some slow-moving cars at the Nouvelle Chicane and Verstappen fuming after he was forced to bail out of a lap.
While Leclerc improved again to eclipse Norris’ benchmark and move into the 1m11s bracket, an exasperated radio message – claiming “we are nowhere” in terms of car balance – implied that there is still plenty of work to do at Ferrari. Several lock-ups, barrier scrapes and close calls followed over the final third of the session, with Hamilton narrowly avoiding traffic at Massenet and then flying over the kerbs at Turn 15/16, and Piastri returning to the pits for inspections after an apparent brush of the wall.
Leclerc remained quickest with his 1m 11.964s effort when the chequered flag dropped, a tenth clear of nearest rival Verstappen, as Norris, the high-flying Williams of Alex Albon, championship leader Piastri and Mercedes’ George Russell completed the top six. Carlos Sainz backed up team mate Albon in seventh position, followed by the lead Alpine of Gasly, Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, who was Aston Martin’s sole driver for the majority of the session following Stroll’s early clash with Leclerc.
Kimi Antonelli was the fastest rookie of FP1 in 11th, putting his Mercedes just ahead of Kick Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, Racing Bull’s Isack Hadjar and the other Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda, who lamented traffic during his final runs. Haas duo Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon were next up in P15 and P16 respectively, as Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls), Gabriel Bortoleto (Kick Sauber), F1 returnee Franco Colapinto (Alpine) and the aforementioned Stroll rounded out the order.
UPDATE: Stroll and Leclerc clashed in unusual fashion in the early stages of FP1 when the Aston Martin driver came back onto the racing line under braking for the hairpin after moving over for another car. Leclerc ran into the back of Stroll’s car and damaged his front wing, triggering a red flag, while the Canadian missed the rest of the session due to broken rear suspension and a gearbox change.
Following a review of the incident, the stewards determined that Stroll was “wholly to blame” and thus handed out a one-place grid drop, which will apply for Sunday’s race in the Principality. “The stewards determined that Car 18 (Stroll) cut across the path of Car 16 (Leclerc) at Turn 6, causing Car 16 to collide into Car 18,” read the decision document. “Car 16 suffered damage as a result. The driver of Car 18 stated that although the team warned him of the arrival of Car 16, he did not hear the radio message and that led to the incident.
“We considered that Car 18 was wholly to blame for the collision. Car 16 was not in a position to avoid the collision that took place. In the circumstances, we imposed a one grid position penalty for the race and one penalty point (on Stroll’s licence).”
FP2 –
Charles Leclerc completed a perfect Friday for Ferrari after topping the second practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix, which was disrupted by two red flags including one caused by Drivers’ Championship leader Oscar Piastri.
The home hero followed up on his P1 in the opening session with the fastest time on Friday afternoon, while team mate Lewis Hamilton in third signified a remarkable turnaround for the Scuderia from a week ago at Imola. Drivers and teams continued to push the limits on the streets of the Principality, with Isack Hadjar and Piastri going beyond it during the one-hour session.
After the first set of runs, reigning World Champion Max Verstappen sat top of the order on a 1m 12.922s despite complaining over the radio for his team to “please fix the upshifts” and about the poor quality of his tear-off visors. It took less than eight minutes for the first red flag of the session to be deployed, Hadjar having clipped the inside barrier on the entry to the Nouvelle Chicane which ripped the left-rear tyre off its rim.
Having initially come to a stop on the far side of the chicane as the red flags flew, the Frenchman slowly made his way back to the pits having asked his Racing Bulls team on the best course of action. Once running resumed, Piastri lowered the benchmark to a 1m 12.548s on a set of medium tyres, but the McLaren driver brought out the red flags again shortly after having hit the barrier head-on at Sainte Devote. After reversing, the Australian was able to recover back to the pits for a new front wing as the session resumed with 35 minutes remaining.
Prior to the second stoppage, Leclerc had moved to the top of the times with a 1m 12.103s, but multiple Monaco Grand Prix winners Fernando Alonso, on the softs, and Hamilton on the hard rubber both jumped him. Alonso then became the first driver to dip below the 1m 12s mark with a 1m 11.890s, faster than Leclerc’s best from FP1, as the session entered its second half. Leclerc’s first effort on a soft moved the benchmark down to a 1m 11.414s, while his second attempt with 20 minutes remaining improved that to a 1m 11.355s, which would finish as the fastest time on Friday.
Piastri recovered from his incident to finish second, just 0.038s behind Leclerc, with Hamilton one-tenth behind Leclerc as Lando Norris completed the top four. Liam Lawson finished an impressive fifth just ahead of team mate Hadjar, who found the barriers again, this time at Sainte Devote on a cooldown lap inside the final 10 minutes, which left the Racing Bulls machine with damage as he crabbed back to the pits. Alonso, Alex Albon’s Williams and Kimi Antonelli for Mercedes finished ahead of Verstappen in P10, who remained unhappy with his Red Bull having gone into the run-off area at one point.
The Dutchman was only 0.004s ahead of team mate Yuki Tsunoda, who in turn headed the second Mercedes and Williams of George Russell and Carlos Sainz respectively. Gabriel Bortoleto, who Verstappen had complained about for blocking through the Swimming Pool section, put his Kick Sauber in 14th with team mate Nico Hulkenberg 16th, as Ollie Bearman’s Haas sat between them – though the Briton was later hit with a 10-place grid penalty for the race for overtaking under the red flag. Pierre Gasly was the top Alpine in P17 as team mate Franco Colapinto ended last of the 20 runners. Lance Stroll, who was handed a one-place penalty for his collision with Leclerc in FP1, was 18th ahead of Esteban Ocon for Haas.
UPDATE: Haas rookie Ollie Bearman has been hit with a 10-place grid penalty for the Monaco Grand Prix after the stewards found him guilty of a red flag breach during practice. Television replays showed Bearman appearing to overtake Carlos Sainz under the red flags triggered by Oscar Piastri’s crash in Friday’s second session, with the stewards subsequently noting the incident.
After Bearman and a Haas team representative visited the stewards, and various footage and data was analysed, the panel came to the conclusion that Bearman should be hit with the sizeable grid drop. It means at least two drivers will begin Saturday’s all-important Qualifying session with penalties to their name, given Lance Stroll’s earlier sanction for an FP1 clash involving Charles Leclerc.
“Well prior to the overtake, the session had been red flagged,” read the stewards’ decision document. “The team informed the driver rather late, just before the overtake happened. However, it is clear from the video footage that there was a light panel directly in front of the driver which showed the red flag; and the dashboard also indicated the red flag well before the overtake took place.
“The regulations require the drivers to ‘immediately’ reduce speed and proceed slowly back to their respective pits (Article 2.5.4.1 b)). The same regulations caution drivers of the fact that in a red flag situation, ‘overtaking is forbidden’ and that drivers should ‘remember that race and service vehicles may be on the track…’. The driver claimed that he saw the red flags but decided not to slow down abruptly because he felt that slowing down abruptly would have been more dangerous and that what he did was a safer way of handling the situation.
“We disagreed with his decision to not take steps to slow down sufficiently to avoid overtaking another car and instead proceeding slowly back to the pits, as required. The whole purpose of requiring drivers to slow down immediately is for safety – they will not know what is in front of them or the reason for the red flag being shown. This is particularly so in a track like Monaco. In the circumstances, there is no mitigating factor for the fact that he overtook a car under red flag and we therefore imposed a penalty of a 10-grid place drop for the race and two penalty points.”
FP3 –
Charles Leclerc completed a practice clean-sweep after setting the fastest time in FP3 ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, as the session finished under a red flag following a crash for Ferrari team mate Lewis Hamilton. Drivers and teams embarked on the final hour of practice on the streets of the Principality to find as much performance from their cars as possible, before the most crucial Qualifying session of the season on Saturday afternoon.
But with track conditions not at their optimum initially, many drivers remained in the pits for the opening 10 minutes with Franco Colapinto the first to set some timed laps on the soft tyre but which were several seconds off the pace from Friday. Liam Lawson was the only other driver to push for a time during the same period, reporting over the radio that “the track is very low grip” to his Racing Bulls team.
Nico Hulkenberg moved his Kick Sauber to the top of the times on the medium tyre with a 1m 13.916s, but nearly found the barrier at the final corner later having locked up, before reversing and rejoining unharmed. Hamilton slotted into second on the soft tyres, but the Ferrari driver complained that “the rear is sliding a lot” over the radio before times soon began to tumble as leading runners took to the circuit.
Lando Norris posted a 1m 12.970s on the softs, before his lap was bested by Friday pacesetter Leclerc as the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda jumped up to third and fourth on the 20-minute mark. Leclerc and Norris soon engaged in their own personal duel, as first the McLaren driver reasserted himself back at the top with a 1m 12.347s, Leclerc then set a new benchmark of 1m 12.199s, before Norris immediately replied and improved by less than one tenth.
Reigning World Champion Verstappen then asserted himself at the top, the first man of the day to dip below the 1m12s barrier as the Red Bull driver posted a 1m 11.961s with the medium tyre. He lowered this further, first to a 1m 11.653s, then a 1m 11.233s, the latter a time which was faster than Leclerc’s best from Friday as the session reached its halfway point. Qualifying simulation runs took place over the final 15 minutes, with most drivers performing, push, cooldown and push laps, with Verstappen reporting “I have no grip” on the soft tyre after failing to improve on his remaining laps.
With just over five minutes remaining, Leclerc moved back to the top on a 1m 11.179s on the soft tyre before the Ferrari driver set a 1m 10.953s, which would finish as the benchmark as the red flags flew with just under two minutes remaining. Hamilton, who set the fifth fastest time, came to a stop at Casino Square having hit the barrier hard through Massenet, with the team in a race against time to repair the damage before Qualifying in just a few hours.
Verstappen finished second, just 0.280s adrift of Leclerc, as Norris and the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri completed the top four. Alex Albon was the lead Williams in sixth, followed by Lawson and Carlos Sainz, as Tsunoda and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli completed the top 10 ahead of team mate George Russell, who struggled for pace in 11th.
Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, Hulkenberg and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly finished 12th-14th, with Lance Stroll next in the order, the Canadian set to serve a one-place grid drop for his clash with Leclerc in FP1. Ollie Bearman, who will serve a 10-place grid penalty for a red flag infringement in FP2, was P16 with Haas team Esteban Ocon 18th as Isack Hadjar split the pair. Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Alpine’s Colapinto completed the order.
UPDATE: Colapinto was cleared of red flag infringement as the light panel was still blue when he overtook. Here: https://www.fia.com/system/files/decision-document/2025_monaco_grand_prix_-_decision_-_car_43_-_alleged_failure_to_comply_with_red_flag.pdf
After nearly a day, Sainz was cleared of his FP2 move under red flag. Here: https://www.fia.com/system/files/decision-document/2025_monaco_grand_prix_-_decision_-_car_55_-_alleged_failure_to_comply_with_red_flag_in_p2.pdf
[The story is as per press release]
