The Saturday in F1 Monaco GP was another hectic run as Ferrari took the fight to McLaren, while Mercedes suffered a disaster after double Q2 exit.
The tyre gamble was on, on Saturday in F1 Monaco GP as several tried the medium tyre albeit to save soft and hard compounds for the grand prix. It was a close fight and it looked like Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc would take it away from the McLaren pair, but it wasn’t to be.
Leclerc got through it but McLaren went for a double lap strategy and Norris improved on his final attempt to deny a home F1 pole to the Monegasque. In doing so, the Brit also took top spot away from teammate Oscar Piastri, who struggled all-through the session to get close to him.
Norris was pleased to finally get his qualifying correct and have a golden chance to cut down on points in the F1 title battle. Leclerc, though, was not too happy to miss out on pole, even though pre-weekend there was no expectation from the Ferrari camp to be so strong.
His teammate Lewis Hamilton backed him up in fourth after FP3 crash. But a three-place drop for impeding Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will make his life a bit tougher from seventh on a circuit like Monaco. From fourth, he had a good chance to be on the podium, but it will be hard now.
The Dutchman, though, didn’t think pole was possible, even if Red Bull made a step from Friday into F1 qualifying. He thinks the car historically hasn’t done well and it was the case again. He sympathised with Hamilton on the penalty, but was fine for the Brit to be penalised as per previous cases.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was caught out by red flag in Q2 which hampered his run plan. He couldn’t improve in his final attempt to be knocked out in 12th, which leaves him in a bad place. He will have the two Mercedes drivers for company after a disastrous end for both of them in F1 qualifying.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli rued the mistake in Q1 to crash out. Even though he was in Q2, he couldn’t do any running. Teammate George Russell was out on his first attempt in Q2 after riding a bump which shut his car off. The two hope they can score points, but Russell isn’t too optimistic about it.
Norris: “Means a lot. Not just because it’s been a while since I’ve been here, but just because of how things have been, how things have gone over the last couple of months, in qualifying. So, to come here with a fresh mindset and plenty more opportunities – and in Monaco, you know, it’s just a cooler, more special place to do it. A harder place, because it’s more difficult as a lap, more exciting, more pressure, but the most relief at the same time when you do a good job. And today was that day. So, it means a lot to me, to my whole team, because we’ve been working a lot for another moment like this. There’s probably a small mix of both of these. Things from the car, just it being Monaco and a very different layout, a very different kind of style of driving that’s needed here. It’s a lot more risk, commitment, rather than just absolute car balance, in a way. And also, things that I’ve been working on to improve, to do a better job. Again, never because I’ve not had the pace—just more that I’ve never put it together come Q3.
“Today was probably the first time since Australia that I’ve really put it all together. So it’s not like I’m driving quicker, it’s I’m driving in a better way, in a smarter way. But there’s been a lot of work that’s gone on. So even if I was pole at any other track, I think it probably would have been the pole that’s meant the most to me. It probably means even more that it’s in Monaco, but more because of what’s happened over the last couple of months. May not seem like a lot, but for me, it’s quite a big thing. So, yep. Like I said, a very, very good moment. I mean, you always want laps. We knew that it was hard to get a lap time out on the first attempt. In pretty much every session, people were improving and improving. So, we knew it would change into qualifying, but I think we stuck to our plan, which was to do one lap, then box and do another two. It’s what we thought was right and clearly what was right. So, happy with what we chose to do.”
Leclerc: “It was a good lap, but it was a bit of a tricky Q3. In the first run of Q3, I had Max in the second sector and lost a lot of lap time there. So, obviously, when you don’t have that first time in Q3, then you have a little bit less confidence to go flat out on the second run. I don’t think this made the difference at the end of the day. I haven’t seen exactly the gaps, but I think it’s bigger than a few hundredths. So, yeah, it is the way it is. I’m obviously disappointed—being at home and being on top of every free practice session was a good sign. But I kind of felt it already in FP3 where I knew that I was putting laps very much on the limit. And when you look at the onboard, you can see drivers that are taking a bit of a step back. So I knew it would be close, but at the end of the day, I didn’t get it this year. I’m not satisfied, because you forget very quickly with the expectations that you have going into a weekend when free practices are going so well. I think we were wrong with the expectations that we had. And at the end of the day, it was a lot more positive than what we initially thought. We still need to understand why, to be completely honest.
“For me, it’s an unknown. I don’t quite know why we are so fast in slow speed suddenly, but we’ll analyse that after the weekend. But no, disappointment is big. We did not. We expected to struggle a lot, which wasn’t the case because from FP1, it felt really, really good. The car felt good. I felt confident with the car straight away, and we’ve got to understand that… How we can reproduce that on all the tracks. Like if we take Miami, which was two race weekends ago, we were losing so much in the low-speed corners, and now we are very fast this weekend. So, obviously, there are other things that are also changing. The ride is not great here, and we know we’ve got a pretty good car in terms of ride. But I feel like there might be something else to be understood. I think the only explanation I can find for now is that on a track like this, where there’s only low speed – basically no high-speed corners – in most of the tracks, we had to take compromises in order to not lose too much in high-speed corners. We don’t have to set up the car in a way where we compromise anything here because we just focus on the low speed. And when we are on these kinds of tracks, it seems that there’s some performance in the low speed from the car. But we are a little bit stuck at the moment on other tracks, so I don’t think we can apply it to any other tracks other than Monaco, unfortunately.”
Piastri: “I think so, yes. It’s been a pretty challenging time until Q3, to be honest. But I feel like we got the car in a much better window for qualifying and I was much happier. But it’s just been a very messy weekend. I said before, I think I’ve hit more things this weekend than I have in my whole career. So, it’s not been that straightforward, but I think to come out with this result is quite positive. The laps I did at the end of qualifying felt pretty good. Obviously not quite enough, but yeah. I think at a track like this when you’ve had a messy build-up, you’re always going to leave a little bit on the table. Just struggling with the balance really. Struggling with confidence in the car, I think. It’s in a much better place now than it was yesterday for sure, so I don’t think that was necessarily the problem at this point. But yeah, I’ve just been struggling to repeat the feeling I had last year through practice really. But I think the team did a good job of trying to put the car in a better window, and I think we definitely did that by qualifying. But, yeah, definitely some laps I would rather have done again through the weekend.”
Verstappen: “Pole? Absolutely not. Already in FP3 we had some limitations, then in qualifying I think it was quite clear that sector two was just very poor. We just couldn’t ride the kerbs, all the compressions, they were just not really good for us. It’s a little bit better [than last year] but we’re just weak in low speed and also where you have to take kerbs and where the camber drops away from you, that’s where our car doesn’t like that. It’s never liked it. It still doesn’t like it. Balance was little better but then not enough mechanical grip. I mean, in the FP2, it was not very good. Clearly others also made a step forward but the problem is, normally, yes, we can fine-tune our balance, we find performance. But when a car is not performing at low speed, it’s not performing. It doesn’t matter what you do with the set-up, and that’s our problem. It’s always been our problem from the start of 22’, and it’s still our problem. Our car just doesn’t like low-speed corners, and especially the low-speed here in Monaco, with all the curbs and stuff.
“Yeah, it’s just not our track. With Lewis, at that time, of course I was like ‘what’s going on here?’ It was quite clear that there was a car in my way but it was basically that his team told Lewis that I was driving slow, so then of course he would accelerate which is normal, he thinks I am on a slow lap but I am clearly not on a slow lap. Of course, I know that it’s not his fault, but I even got a one-place grid penalty for not even impeding on a fast lap. So, yeah, if you get away with that, I’m really surprised. It’s not like I’m trying to get Lewis a penalty. It’s just the precedent of what they have been using in the stewards room. I know it’s the team’s fault, clearly, because Lewis is normally always quite correct with these things, like moving out of the way, and no one really wants to impede anyone on purpose. So, yeah, this was just, yeah, unfortunate, but it happened.”
Hamilton: “I’m definitely getting there, yeah, definitely feel the last race was a really good step, and then coming into this weekend, I’ve definitely felt more at one with the car. I think it’s a much, much different car driving here than I’ve had for the last 12 years, but one I’ve really enjoyed driving. Obviously Charles has been driving this car [with] the way they set the car up here for the last six years, so he hits the ground and he knows it like the back of his hand. I would say this weekend has been a quick, steep learning curve, but I was quite happy with the recovery from the crash. It’s hard to explain, it’s just the characteristics through corners, through corner balance, rides, it’s a lot different, how soft the car is. When I was at Mercedes the car was very stiff, it was running quite stiff loads to get the downforce as well…like everything’s different. Cambers, everything’s different…the way the engine behaves, engine braking – I don’t think I’ve ever used engine braking before, it’s the first time. All these different components that you’re thrown in, it takes a bit to get used to it, but I think I was enjoying it.
“I think it is a ride-height thing between Imola and here, since China, ride has been an issue. I think the two stops should be better than the shite we had last year. Last year the safety car came out lap 2 and everyone was just on one tyre for 70 something laps. It was an uneventful race. I think this forces a bit more of a lottery. I think you need that at this sort of track because you can’t overtake. I’m excited to see how different it is. I chose to have two hards, Charles chose to have two mediums. I’m hoping that there’s a benefit of that, but of course the two McLarens have two hards as well. With Max, I don’t know if there’s some sort of issue with the computer screen, it said that Max was on the lap, and then it disappeared and said he wasn’t. That was the information they gave me. They told me he was on a lap. So I moved to the side. I was completely out of the way. I guess for them, they realised he wasn’t on a lap, they told me so I started to accelerate. I stayed fully to the left and I wasn’t on the racing line – but of course it was distracting for Max.”
Russell: “Yeah, it [a bump] was definitely the cause, but it was a bump in the straight. It’s a bump that’s been there all weekend and a bump that I’ve felt all weekend, but for whatever reason, on this occasion, the whole engine switched off when I hit this bump. Really disappointing because we got ourselves a bit lost this weekend with the set-up and we went back to basics for quali. From lap one, I felt back in the game. Also, Kimi stayed with probably more the set-up he had in FP3; I went back to something that we knew. He was struggling and we were there – I really feel we would have been in the top four today – now, we’re not. It was clicking in Q1 and we were one of the few drivers not to take any new tyres.
“I did one corner in Q2 and I was already almost two tenths up and already had plenty enough to be into Q3 with two sets. We had the two hard tyres, we had a real chance this weekend, but now it’s up in smokes and weekend over, so it’s pretty deflating. Well, for sure, there’s going to be some crazy strategies, but we qualified 14th. We probably should have been in the top five, so there’s ten cars between me and where we should have been. If people are doing crazy things with the strategy, half of those guys will go one way. The other half will go the other way. Therefore, whichever one we decide, we’re still stuck behind five drivers.”
Antonelli: “I don’t remember but it was not so far. It was an unnecessary mistake because I think I was already through by then. It is a shame to finish the session like this. I glanced the wall on the left and I just couldn’t turn right, I damaged the front-left, I mean I lost pressure from the front-left and I had no turning. We will try something with the strategy to see if we can do something but I just need to reset because its been two weekends now in a row and I need to reset and come back stronger.”
The drop of Tsunoda along with the Mercedes drivers allowed for multiple cars into the Top 10. It was Visa Cash App RB pair who made it in and Isack Hadjar, who leads the best of the rest in fifth now. The Frenchman recovered well from his FP2 shunt to step up when it mattered.
He knew the car had pace, it was only the matter of stitching it together. For teammate Liam Lawson, it was a larger step as he made Q3 for the first time since returning to Visa Cash App RB fold. He showed promise in practice and delivered when it mattered to back Hadjar in the quest for a Top 10 finish.
Lawson notes there is no confidence lack, but only getting things together. There was glee in their camp but not as much at Williams. Even though Alexander Albon made it inside the Top 10, the Thai was left frustrated after he couldn’t improve on his best Q2 time in Q3 to be only 10th.
For some reason, both he and Carlos Sainz haven’t managed to get things right on the soft compound in Monaco. The Spaniard missed out on Q3, where he revealed new findings on a street circuit. He noted that he found things that he didn’t encounter in the Williams car before.
In the bid to chase set-up, he couldn’t extract full performance. There was joy for Haas’ Esteban Ocon, though, who ended up eighth after finishing last pretty much in practice. The Frenchman said something clicked in qualifying, especially in Q2 which helped him to make it in Q3 and beat two cars.
There was some help from Oliver Bearman in Q1 when the Brit slowed to allow Ocon every chance to qualify in Q2. The Brit wasn’t too pleased with the penalty as well. For the second race in a row, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso made it inside the Top 10 after superlative performance.
The Spaniard extracted all which included medium tyre try in Q2 to get into Q3. Once in, he put in a strong lap on the soft tyre to end up sixth. Teammate Lance Stroll didn’t have luck, much like the Alpine pair of Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto, who were out in Q1 as well.
Irrespective of the impeding that Gasly had from Stroll, the Frenchman didn’t have the pace to sneak into Q2. Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto had the pace, but just missed out by few tenths when teammate Nico Hulkenberg managed to – both were satisfied with how F1 qualifying panned out.
Lawson: “Its definitely been a positive weekend so far. I think the car has been good yesterday. To be honest, I actually think we missed out a little bit on something higher. We’ve been improving all through the sessions, and start of quali was very positive, but I think towards the end, I struggled a little bit with warm-up, I got a bit of traffic, and small things make a big difference here. It’s positive obviously from where it’s been recently. It hasn’t come together at all through any of the weekends so it’s a good start to the weekend. Obviously, tomorrow’s the important day. As much as today arguably is as important, if not more to be fair around here, but hopefully with the new rules we can try and make something happen tomorrow. I think honestly that’s not really been something I’ve struggled with, like confidence this year has always been okay.
“And I probably shouldn’t say it’s clicked this weekend because it’s clicked back in Japan. It’s just in Formula One, you need so many things to work together to have a result. There’s a lot of variables in this sport and I think it’s just been unfortunate for us so far. Speed has felt good through most of the weekends I would say, and this weekend we’ve managed to show at least some of it in quali. Truthfully, nobody really knows, it’s going to be new for all of us. It’ll allow us, for sure, some more opportunities so we’ll be trying to crunch the numbers and come up with something. And with both cars together in Q3, there’s potential to do something different maybe, but it’s something we’ll have to talk about.”
Sainz: “That’s not the full story, I think my weekend has just been, honestly, a bit off from the get-go. Never getting to feel well and confident with the car around the street track. A bit disappointed because the progress that I’ve done with set-up and with my driving, I felt like, the moment I went to the street track, I felt like I went back seven races. I was still learning too many new things about this car in the street track. We had to play a lot with set-up which in Monaco is not ideal because you feel a different car every time you go out. Yeah, I never really get into a very good rhythm this weekend. Anyway, even with all this lack of rhythm, lack of pace, lack of confidence with the car, I felt like I had plenty of pace to go into Q3 this weekend. Q1, we had a solid run. Q2, the moment we started playing with mediums and softs, that’s when your lack of experience or lack of feeling with the car starts to show up. I lost my rhythm, I lost my confidence. I had a terrible last lap on softs.
“I was sliding all over the place. It is definitely something to look into and looking at Alex, just now in Q3, he managed to do a mega lap in Q2 but in Q3 he was again nowhere. So there must be some magic there that we haven’t understood with the tyres. Honestly have a feeling in the race I’ll be quick. Yesterday in the long run I was quick. So, I hope I’m putting pressure on everyone in front of me and we can use this two-stop strategy. I feel like the car with higher fuel, bit less reactive, everything comes down and I am more confident. I’m pretty sure tomorrow I’ll be on the pace and putting pressure on everyone around me, but I haven’t had a look at strategy yet because I’ve been too busy changing set-ups and putting my head around the car. Tomorrow is the day to look forward, I mean, obviously keep an eye behind but I think tomorrow the target needs to be getting the points and be the ones on the attack because I think I’m a bit out of position from where I think I could be this weekend.”
Alonso: “I think P5 in Imola? In terms of position. From inside the car, both of them it was on the limit, obviously Monaco feels more adrenaline because of the nature of the circuit and the amount of risk that you need to take every lap, especially Q2 and Q3. Even Q1, I think the last minute I was out of Q1. I was P16 I think, when I saw the big screen going to Rascasse opening the lap, so that was not reassuring for sure. But yeah, this is Monaco, this is the best Saturday of the year. Adrenaline, fun behind the wheel, excitement behind the wheel. These kind of days is why I keep driving here, because it’s so rewarding when you finish the lap with the amount of risk that you are taking in the corners and when you complete a lap it’s really nice. I am not sure [why mediums didn’t work as much], still not sure. For us, they were very similar. In fact, in the moment of truth in Q2, we chose to put the medium, so the medium was at least as fast as soft. In Q3, we didn’t have any mediums, so we just had to put the soft and it is true that I improved two or three tenths from the lap on the mediums in Q2, so arguably the soft was also a good tyre.
“In the normal Monaco, P7 in quali means P7 in the race, so I would say that P7 is the maximum tomorrow but the new rules, you know, will open different strategies. I think the people out of Top 10, they will just try different and alternative strategy because they are out of the points and they need to try something, it is understandable. If they are lucky, they are in the points and they put you out of points. In a way I would like that Monaco was in the old rules so I was more or less guaranteed P7, but it’s the way it is. Tomorrow we can be lucky and finish P5 or P4, or we can be unlucky and finish out of the points again. We did the best job possible today, we will keep doing the best possible job tomorrow and from our side we will be proud of what we do. If the luck is with us, it is good, and if the luck is with others, then good for them.”
Ocon: “It’s not a secret that we were last since Imola. You know, all [five] sessions in Imola we were almost dead last. The three practices [in Monaco], not far from last. We really struggled with the front end of the car and the car not turning as it should into the corners. That has been something that, with the grip coming up, has become more apparent. In Imola it was very clear, and here, it became clear today. But we kept working on the car, all together with the team, all the way into Qualifying as well, you know, with diff, with the tool, with engine braking, brake balance, with flap as well. You know, everything that we were allowed to play with, we did and the car came alive much more into that Q2 run two. Managed to secure and go through which was unexpected. And then that Q3 lap, I really didn’t leave anything on the table. I have done three good laps here around Monaco in my career. That’s one of them. If you want to re-watch Turns 15 and 16—entry touching the wall, apex touching the wall, exit touching the wall—there is nothing left in there.
“That was a special feeling and I am happy with that, solid, solid Saturday, definitely. I am sure that when we get through these little problems, we are going to be much more in these kinds of positions. But today, we managed to overcome them, and it feels good. Yes, definitely. And same as Miami, really, we, you know, kept working on it and suddenly, you know, something clicks. The problem is still there, but we managed to be on top of it a little bit more and not be slowed down so much with it. So, not easy, but yeah, it goes in the right direction. It’s a relief, yes, because it’s the race to do it. We need to do a good start, obviously, tomorrow, figure out, you know, who has what in terms of tyres and then hopefully this position will be a successful weekend, but not done yet.”
Hulkenberg: “It was a clean qualifying session today. Reaching Q2 was an important target, and I’m pleased we achieved that: to be honest, however, I was hoping for a stronger grid position than P13. In the final runs of Q2 I wasn’t able to find more lap time, especially in sector one and two; sector three was really strong, but it unfortunately the wasn’t quite enough to make it into Q3. Our focus now shifts to tomorrow’s race. We showed solid pace on long runs during yesterday’s free practice, which gives us some confidence. The real challenge, though, will be managing the three mandatory sets of tyres. It will be interesting to see how teams approach that, as there are quite a few strategic options on the table. Obviously, teams and drivers will have long meetings tonight and cook up some ideas.”
Gasly: “It is always disappointing to be knocked out in Q1 so right now I feel sad for everyone at the team. We were lacking pace today. It is all relative, though, as we were seven tenths off the best time in Q1 and that is the difference between being in the top ten in the session or being in the bottom five and out. For some reason we are just too slow here. The car is moving around on the bumps, we are lacking grip and generally sliding too much. We tried different set-ups but we just could not fix those difficult areas. Tomorrow, we have the mandatory two-stops, so it certainly is not over yet. We need something to happen and we will see what we can do tomorrow to try and work our way back up towards the points positions. There are a lot of cars ahead in order to make our way to the top ten but tomorrow could be interesting with some variation on strategy. We just have to be on top of it and see what we can achieve.”
Friday recap –
Ferrari played down their chances big time heading into F1 Monaco GP considering their disadvantage in slow-speed sections, but Friday in Monte Carlo presented something else. Despite his early incident with Lance Stroll, Charles Leclerc managed to set the best time in FP1 and retained it in FP2.
The Monegasque wasn’t too happy all-through FP1, but set the best time. By the end of it, he was comfortable in the car, but isn’t certain that the whole weekend will see them on top. Teammate Lewis Hamilton felt good in the car too and doesn’t wish to change much for Saturday.
The big competition is certainly to come from McLaren. It was not too underwhelming from them and despite Oscar Piastri’s barrier hit in FP2, he only finished 0.038s behind Leclerc. It was messy indeed from them but not without pace, as Lando Norris was in the mix as well for the podium positions.
It was a mixed bag for Red Bull after changes in the car didn’t work well in FP2 as Max Verstappen suggested. The Dutchman felt good in FP1 and hopes it will help for the rest of the weekend. Yuki Tsunoda is still regaining confidence after Imola hit, but isn’t comfortable on the soft tyre.
His prime goal will be to make it inside the Top 10, even if he is not as close to Verstappen. Mercedes, meanwhile, felt a bit too far. George Russell finished FP2 outside the Top 10 but hopes that they can repeat 2024 where they didn’t do well on Friday as well. Teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli spent time learning the track in a F1 car considering that he is a rookie here.
Leclerc: “Maybe a bit less convinced but yeah, I’m not convinced the other way either. A Friday in Monaco is always very special, very specific, I think everybody is taking a bit their reference. It is too early to feel very positive about the weekend. But let’s say the Friday has been very positive for us, I’ve been feeling pretty good with the car. It hasn’t started the way I wanted with the crash with Lance but after that it has been pretty smooth and I’m happy overall with the car.”
Piastri: “I think just the whole day’s been a bit up and down. I think when we get everything together the pace is quite good, it’s just not proving that easy to do at the moment. Some things to look at, I think especially for myself, it’s been a very messy day. Just try and rest a bit tomorrow, but I think the pace in the car is there.”
Verstappen: “I think FP1 was quite positive, but then we made some changes for FP2 to see how far basically we could push the balance. I think we just overdid it a little bit, so then I just couldn’t really attack the corners anymore how I would like, then you’re just shedding a lot of pace and the lap time was basically not coming out of it. I don’t expect us to be the quickest. We want to be of course a lot closer than what we were in FP2… I’m also quite confident that we can be a lot closer, but Ferrari again looks very, very fast. The McLarens were quite close behind, but if you see over the whole season the pace, I think Ferrari again took a big step forward here.”
Russell: “To be honest in terms of pure performance, it’s probably been our slowest Friday. But to be honest, we had a bad Friday here last year and we were only, I think, a tenth from pole in the end. So kind of all still to play for and I’m still pretty excited to see how Sunday is going to pan out. Even if we’re not in the top five, or top three, tomorrow I still think there may be a bit of a chance on Sunday, especially the first time being as it is this year [with the two-stop rule]. We’ll keep our hopes alive. It’s always amazing driving around here, we weren’t very quick today but tomorrow usually is the main day. But, this weekend, with the mandated two-stop, it will be interesting.”
The Top 10 featured pair of Visa Cash App RB cars in FP2. Despite the multiple incidents for Isack Hadjar, he could stitch a good lap. The Frenchman wasn’t too happy with himself after the mistakes he made. Teammate Liam Lawson showed good pace in the second session to be in the Top 5.
The challenge for Visa Cash App RB should come from Williams. Despite a Top 10 finish, Alexander Albon didn’t feel 100% in the car. Teammate Carlos Sainz had similar feelings, but both know they can work overnight to recover some lost ground that they felt on Friday.
The surprise could be Aston Martin after Fernando Alonso managed to make it inside the Top 10 in both the sessions. He is hopeful that they can come good. Teammate Lance Stroll lost ground in FP1 after his crash with Leclerc, but managed to do handy laps in the second session.
Haas’ Oliver Bearman will have his task cutout on Sunday after the 10-place grid penalty, which means he will most likely start from last. He had decent pace to make it in Q2 and fight for points, while teammate Esteban Ocon had a normal day, much like Sauber pair of Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto.
Hadjar: “It was really intense for me. Free Practice around Monaco is a lot more busy than usual with the traffic. I enjoyed it, but at the same time it was really hard. I had a tricky day, brushing the walls, playing with the limits. FP2 got me scared because at some point I thought that was it, but I still managed to bring it back. The car didn’t really want to, but I forced it to, and we could still have a few laps on the soft. I’m sorry a bit for them to add a bit of work, but they are really sharp – they did amazing today.”
Albon: “I don’t think we are totally happy with the car yet. There’s a rhythm that you need around Monaco and it’s been quite a disjointed day because of all the yellow and red flags, so I haven’t found that feeling yet. We are relatively quick, and the car is not quite there yet, so we need to go through the data, make some changes tonight and get well prepared for tomorrow.”
Alonso: “I was a bit happier with the balance of the car in FP2 today after some set-up changes and hopefully we can take another step tomorrow. It’s a track where you have to keep building the momentum and confidence. Traffic will be one of the main topics tomorrow, so let’s see if we can get some clean laps in Qualifying.”
Bearman: “It’s nice to be racing on the streets of Monaco, it always presents a good challenge. My feeling was that we did a good step from FP1 to FP2 with the car and I was happy with the balance. We also tried to short-run the medium and see how its performance was over one lap and it seemed pretty robust. Qualifying is really the goal, but we’ll have to see as I did my performance laps on mediums, which was quite different from some of the others. I think there are some good signs from today, so let’s look to improve on them tomorrow.”
Gasly: “It is great to be back in Monaco. It’s definitely one of the highlights of the year and I do love driving here. I would say Free Practice 1 was much better for us than Free Practice 2. We settled into a nice rhythm straight away and ended the session in eighth place. Others seemed to make a bigger step in performance in the second session so there are some question marks on our side. We had clean laps but we just seemed to lack pace. As of now, we are on the backfoot compared to those around us. We have some work to do overnight and we need to find some performance to put ourselves into the battle. I know we can do it and I am looking forward to one of the best Qualifying sessions of the year tomorrow.”
Hulkenberg: “It was a decent and trouble-free Friday overall. I felt quite comfortable in the car right from the beginning of FP1, which is particularly important on a tight street circuit like Monaco. We found a good baseline setup, and now it’s all about extracting the right insights from the data to finetune a few areas overnight. As expected, the field is incredibly tight, so even small improvements can make a significant difference.”
Here’s how F1 Monaco GP qualifying panned out