Imperious Ferrari, Leclerc and Hamilton fly in Monaco and sandwich Piastri!

As it’s customary in Monaco, drivers exited the pits and started to do push laps immediately. However, early in the session, Isack Hadjar clipped the wall with his Racing Bulls car which prompted an early red flag.

Hadjar wasn’t the first to find the wall at Monaco, as Oscar Piastri left his front wing as a souvenir in the Monte Carlo street track as the Australian went straight on into the barriers at St. Devote after, despite a heavy lock up, failing to slow down his MCL39.

Fernando Alonso took P1 for a while, before Charles Leclerc put in a quick time, which he would better improve with a mighty one that would put him 5 tenths ahead of the Spaniard and that neither Lanco Norris nor Max Verstappen would be able to close up to, with the Briton taking P2 and the Dutchman taking P7.

After an uninspired first sector Lewis Hamilton improved to P3 albeit nearly 5 tenths off teammate Leclerc. For Verstappen’s second run his improvement was marginal as he could only move up to P6.

In the final push laps Leclerc, despite a purple Sector 1 failed to improve on his top time, as Hamilton did make gains and placed himself within a tenth of his teammate. Piastri then emerged as the Monegasque’s closest pursuer as he clocked in a lap only 0.038s off the leader’s pace.