Monaco Grand Prix FP2: Leclerc leads at home, Hamilton second

Charles Leclerc rose to the top of the times in the second free practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix, while Lewis Hamilton continued to demonstrate Mercedes’ progress.

The hometown hero had been fourth in the first practice, but without using the softest compound tire available this weekend. In the second session, the Ferrari driver gradually upped his pace.

He started with a 1m12.372s on the medium tire, bettering Max Verstappen’s 1m13.265s set on the hard compound, and moved to P1. Leclerc then consistently improved on the medium compound, dipping under the 1m12s barrier with a 1m11.573s.

Near the halfway point, Verstappen switched to soft tires but was still around 0.25s off Leclerc’s pace. When the Ferrari man also put on the softs, he immediately improved to a 1m11.278s, further raising the benchmark. Verstappen attempted a response but made contact with the wall at Portier in the tunnel, ending that lap.

At that stage, Fernando Alonso was the closest to Leclerc, 0.457s adrift, with Verstappen another 0.08s back in third.

For the remainder of the session, Leclerc focused on long runs, his personal best untouched and no serious threat emerging. Hamilton, after switching to softs from a 1m12.530s on mediums, improved to a 1m11.466s, which lifted him ahead of Alonso on the timesheet but still 0.188s shy of Leclerc, demoting Verstappen to fourth.

Lando Norris was the highest-placed McLaren, albeit nearly 0.6s off the pace, followed by Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari. Lance Stroll brushed the wall with his right front wheel through the Swimming Pool complex but escaped without damage and finished the session seventh.

Sergio Perez was eighth, ahead of Alexander Albon in the Williams, while George Russell, who had been third in FP1, took tenth. Russell reported severe vibrations in his car, prompting a team intervention.

Yuki Tsunoda missed out on the top 10 by a narrow margin, while Oscar Piastri, who was second-fastest in the first session, could only manage 12th. However, his lap time was also around a second off Leclerc’s benchmark.

The two Alfa Romeo cars occupied the bottom two places, with Valtteri Bottas edging Guanyu Zhou, the gap between them being 0.7s.