Charles Leclerc made a fine start to his home Grand Prix weekend as the Monegasque racer set the fastest time in the first practice session at this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.
Leclerc set a time of 1m 14.531s on the medium tyre to lead the Red Bull of Sergio Perez by 0.039, with Carlos Sainz a further 0.070s behind his team mate. Championship leader Max Verstappen was further back in P4.
It was a good session for McLaren, with Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo in P5 and P7 respectively, sandwiching the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly in P6. It was a trying session for Mercedes, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finishing in P8 and P10.
FP1: Leclerc leads opening Monaco practice as top three split by just 0.07s
Mick Schumacher briefly brought out the red flags after stopping by the pit lane with a gearbox issue which kept him in the pits for most of the session, while Valtteri Bottas was confined to the pits for all but two laps with a mechanical issue.
Click on the video player above to view the action from an intriguing first session in Monaco.
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