Ferrari, after doing some pre-tactics in the morning session, then gave Charles Leclerc the freedom to seek the limit of the SF-24 first with the medium tires and then with the soft. The Monegasque built a session with continuous improvements in his time which brought him up to 1’11″278 which is already lower than Verstappen’s pole position last year. This generation of ground effect single-seaters, although bulky and heavy, they can aspire to attack tomorrow the absolute track record of 1’10″166 set in 2019 by Lewis Hamilton.
Leclerc was extraordinary with the red car having only a repaired floor after picking up debris from Guanyu Zhou’s Sauber in the first round which had damaged a flow diverter in the Venturi channels. The Monegasque gave everyone a whiplash and only later did Lewis Hamilton with the Mercedes reach a surprising 1’11″466 which brought the W15 to just 188 thousandths of a second from the red. The seven-time world champion put in the hunt for the red, but the Stella suffered in the race pace and doesn’t seem able to aim high with a car that suffers from graining.
In the flying lap the Monegasque showed a competitive Ferrari, while Carlos Sainz, only sixth in the qualifying simulation, was the fastest in the race simulation on lap 21, proving that the SF-24 seems to work in the narrow streets of the Principality. Charles allowed himself only a harmless forehand to Sainte Devote before starting the long run.
Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin performed positively, finishing third with a car halfway between the new and old package. Lance Stroll also defended himself in seventh, although three tenths behind the Asturian. Max Verstappen is only fourth and leaves half a second to Ferrari: the feeling is that Honda has kept the power unit down. The Dutchman complained a lot about the RB20 bouncing with a set-up that was too hard. And he was surprised to see Adrian Newey in the Milton Keynes garage with headphones on to follow the setup of “his” single-seater. But wasn’t he gone? The “genius” was as active as ever, with the red notebook in hand…
Sergio Perez doesn’t seem to have found the balance of the car: he complained of having grazed the barriers at turn 3 due to the constant bouncing of the car. The Mexican is eighth, just ahead of Alexander Albon’s Williams.
Something more was expected from McLaren: Lando Norris is fifth immediately behind Verstappen and immediately ahead of Sainz, while Oscar Piastri suffers in 12th position with a significant gap of over a second.
The top 10 is closed by George Russell’s second Mercedes: the Brackley team has still made some front wing comparisons, a sign that there are still no clear ideas. Yuki Tsunoda is 11th with Racing Bull: the Japanese did significantly better than Daniel Ricciardo, forced into 16th position.
Esteban Ocon slipped in between the two Haas drivers with Alpine in 14th place. Kevin Magnussen put the VF-24 ahead of the Dane, while Nico Hulkenberg had to follow. Pier Gasly is in difficulty with Alpine: the Frenchman is 17th after losing most of the first round due to a Renault engine exhaust problem.
Logan Sargeant with Williams is 18th: the American grazed the barriers a couple of times and lost a bit of conviction between the walls. The Saubers are bad: Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhiu close the group. The technical innovations are giving less than they expected in Hinwil…
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