Charles Leclerc led a surprise Ferrari one-two in Thursday’s practice at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Leclerc topped the second session, 0.112 seconds clear of Carlos Sainz despite missing virtually the entire first session with a gearbox problem.
Sainz was 0.278 seconds quicker than Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who was 0.007secs quicker than title rival Max Verstappen of Red Bull.
Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas was fifth, from McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Leclerc’s performance was especially impressive, as drivers say that track time is crucial in Monaco to allow them to build up the necessary confidence to push to the limit between the barriers.
But Ferrari looked competitive all day. Sainz was continually up at the sharp end through the first session, ending it second fastest to Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
Sainz then was second fastest to Hamilton after the first runs of the second session, with the drivers on medium tyres, while Leclerc was sixth as he dialled himself into the track.
Sainz set the pace when the drivers switched to the ‘soft’ tyres for their qualifying simulation runs, only for Leclerc, running slightly out of sync after a longer first run, to usurp him a few minutes later.
Hamilton could certainly have gone quicker – he lost 0.4secs on his fastest lap with a mistake at the harbour-front chicane. But even that would only have put him level with the Ferraris.
The first day’s practice is an unreliable gauge of the true competitive order because it is not possible to know the specifications in which teams run their cars.
That leaves open the possibility that Ferrari could have been running with a lower fuel load than the title contenders, and therefore look stronger than they really are.
But they certainly seem to be in a strong position to at least head the midfield.
The session ended five minutes early when Mick Schumacher crashed at Massenet, the fast left-hander at the top of the hill just before Casino Square.
Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda also crashed, damaging his car’s right rear corner on the exit of the Swimming Pool section and bringing his session to a close after just 11 laps.
Behind Norris, Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly was seventh fastest, ahead of Perez, Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, who was complaining about problems with his eyes during the session.
