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 session but without using the softest compound tyre available this weekend. In the second, the Ferrari driver gradually upped his pace.

He started with a 1m12.372s on the medium tyre to go quicker than Max Verstappen’s 1m13.265s on the hard, and moved into P1. Thereafter, the Monegasque kept improving on the mediums and dipped under the 1m12s barrier with a 1m11.573s.

Near the halfway point, Verstappen switched to softs but was still around a quarter of a second shy of Leclerc. When the Ferrari man also put on the red-marked rubber, he immediately went faster with a 1m11.278s, raising the bar further. Verstappen tried to respond, but touched the wall exiting the Portier corner in the tunnel and had to abandon that lap.

At that stage, Fernando Alonso was the closest to Leclerc, 0.457s off, with Verstappen another 0.08s back in third. For the rest of the session, Leclerc focused on long runs, and although his personal best remained unaltered, he faced no serious threat. Hamilton, after a 1m12.530s on mediums, improved to a 1m11.466s on softs to jump ahead of Alonso, but remained 0.188s adrift of the Ferrari driver, demoting Verstappen to fourth.

Lando Norris was the highest-placed McLaren, albeit almost half a second shy of Leclerc’s benchmark, followed by Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari. Lance Stroll brushed the wall with his right front wheel through the Swimming Pool complex but was fortunate not to sustain any damage and finished the session seventh.

Sergio Perez took eighth, ahead of Alpine’s Alexander Albon, while George Russell, who had been third in the first session, ended up tenth after reporting severe vibrations in his car, which the team addressed.

Yuki Tsunoda missed out on the top 10 by a narrow margin, while Oscar Piastri, who had been second-fastest in the first session, was only 12th. However, he was also around a second off Leclerc’s pace.

The two Alfa Romeos brought up the rear of the field, with Valtteri Bottas ahead of Guanyu Zhou, the gap between them 0.7s.