Relentless Leclerc makes it a hat-trick ahead of Verstappen as Hamilton crashes!

In the early hours the top teams were still in the garage, as Franco Colapinto and Liam Lawson lapped at reduced speeds to bring the C6 tyres in gently.

Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll scrubbed their hard and medium tyre compounds as it is now customary for the Aston Martin drivers.

Nico Hulkenberg started cranking up the heat as he dipped below the 1:14’s, with Racing Bulls star rookie Isack Hadjar coming only to within 0.049s of the Sauber driver.

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were the first of the top drivers to make their first meters, with the Briton pipping Hadjar but placing right behind Hulkenberg.

Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda then made their way on to the track as Hamilton complained about his rear ‘sliding a lot’.

As Hamilton took the top spot, Norris beat his efforts by nearly half a second. However, Max Verstappen emerging from the boxes in the medium tyre compound put in a strong lap straight away, coming within a little over a tenth from the Briton.

Leclerc then picked up where he left off in FP2 and demoted Norris to P2 by 0.258s.

Yuki Tsunoda appeared to confirm the step forward he took in FP2 closing up to within less than a tenth from Verstappen.

Stroll took P2 behind Leclerc, which Norris would turn into a P3 as he topped the session by 0.365s.

As Hamilton’s quickest lap was deleted the Briton went out for a push lap placing him P3, with Leclerc trying to wrestle away P1 from Norris, but ultimately being unable to do so by 0.073s.

Verstappen, however, on the mediums, took over from Norris by 0.165,. as Piastri, having encountered Colapinto heading into la Rascasse, could only place P4.

Hadjar then had a run in with Red Bull Racing driver, Tsunoda being in his way at the exit of the tunnel.

The Japanese however, put in a lap that was quick enough for P2 behind Verstappen who improved his time by 3 tenths. Hamilton could only improve to within 2 tenths of the Dutchman whilst Leclerc again muscled his Ferrari to the top spot, with Verstappen snatching it right back.

On his first run on softs, Verstappen pushed but failed to improve, like Leclerc who on brand new softs failed to improve as well. Norris improved slightly but did not move up the order, taking easy on the tyres in the Sector 1 to make sure they lasted throughout the rest of the lap.

Hamilton’s pace looked promising in the first two sectors as he was able to close up to 0.099s from Verstappen, with Norris failing to improve as well, struggling to get the most out of the C6 tyres.

Piastri then moved up to P2 with a great lap, but still more than a tenth behind the Dutchman.

Leclerc then set the record straight pipping Verstappen's best lap by almost 3 tenths, with Norris demoting his teammate to P4.

Hamilton then found the wall on the outside of Massenet bringing out a red flag and the session to an early en.