Charles Leclerc doesn’t want to leave even crumbs to his opponents in his home race: the Monegasque was the fastest in the third free practice session of the Monaco GP with a time of 1’11″369, dictating the pace for the entire session. The Ferrari driver found an incredible feeling with the track and a perfect balance of the SF-24. Only at the end of the hour did Max Verstappen approach the red, probably after using a more advanced Honda engine map.
The challenge for pole position seems like a closed game for these two who have a qualifying pace that is decidedly superior to the rest of the group. Leclerc found a perfect feeling with the streets of his home which forgave him for a harmless brush. In third place is Lewis Hamilton with Mercedes: the seven-time world champion with 1’11″710 is 341 thousandths behind Leclerc. It is interesting to note that George Russell is sixth at six tenths with a new nose and a different front wing that is more reminiscent of last year’s concepts. Will the Brackley team only have one element, but will they dare to use this solution in qualifying?
In fourth place comes Oscar Piastri with McLaren: the Australian loses half a second to Leclerc and is threatened by Sergio Perez who only got back to a couple of tenths of a second behind the Dutchman when Honda opened up the center for him.
More was expected from Carlos Sainz, who was only sixth in the other Ferrari: the Spaniard gave up the final battle when the track started to become rubbery, but six tenths from Charles are still too much. The Madrid native held on 9 thousandths of a second to stay ahead of Lando Norris who was less brilliant than expected with the McLaren colored yellow and green in honor of Ayrton Senna.
And close behind McLaren was Yuki Tsunoda with Racing Bull: the Japanese is ninth ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin on the edge of the Top-10. He breathed air of … Pierre Gasly’s home with the lightened Alpine: the Frenchman is 11th ahead of a strong-willed Alexander Albon with Williams. Followed by the two Haas of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen separated by 24 thousandths
Lance Stroll did not impress with the second “green” relegated to 15th place ahead of Esteban Ocon’s Alpine and Logan Sargeant’s Williams.
Daniel Ricciardo did badly on the track where he obtained his most prestigious results: the Australian got eight tenths from Tsunoda and sank to 18th position ahead of the two Saubers in more crisis than ever. The Chinese Zhou precedes Bottas who has no time due to an accident.
Sauber, in fact, causes a second red flag after that of Guany Zhou yesterday: the Chinese had hit at Saint Devote, while Valtteri Bottas bounced off the barriers at the exit of the second of the Piscine. The Finn first hit the rear wheel and then due to the “rebound” he hit the front one, breaking the steering arm. The green single-seater, without front control, stopped at Rascasse. The display of the red flag was inevitable because the other cars were unable to reach the pits for the C44 in the middle of the road.
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