F1 Monaco GP: Perez heads Sainz in FP1, Hamilton only fifth
The Mexican’s best effort - a 1m12.487s - was set at the end of a succession of fastest laps on the soft tyre and saw him top opening practice as F1 returned to Monaco for the first time since 2019 following the event's enforced abs💙ence last yea🔯r.
Perez ended FP1 0.119s cle🦄ar of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who impressed on his way to setti☂ng the second-fastest time on the mediums.
Max Versta𓄧ppen also ran the medium tyre and was third-quickest, just 0.161s down on his Red Bull teammate’s benchmark.
AlphaTauri driveꦜr Pierre Gasly caught the eye as he ran soft tyres to finish fourth, ahead of the t൲wo Mercedes drivers, both of whom set their best lap times on mediums.
Lewis Hamilton, who holds a 14-point lead over Verstappen in the championship coming into the w🍨eekend, was half a second down on Perez’s session-topping pace and a tenth clear ♊of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Fresh from committing his mid-term future to McLaren by🤡 agreeing a new “multi-year” contract on the eve of the Monaco GP, Lando Norris finished seventh.
Sebastian Vettel, Y♕uki Tsunoda and♓ Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top 10 order in FP1 for Aston Martin, AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo.
Returning two-time world champion Fernando Alonsoꦍ was caught out by Monte Carlo’s famous narrow streets when he hit the wall at the final corner and picked up front wing damage.
Tꦫhe Alpine driver also had a moment down the Sainte-Devote escape road, as did Raikkonen in his Alfa Romeo following a lock up.
A gearbox failure ended Charles 🌜Leclerc’s session after just three laps, putting the Ferrari♎ driver at the bottom of the timesheets on a weekend he is hoping to end his run of bad luck in Monaco.
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for ltxcn.top around the world. Often reporting🎶 on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of 🏅the people who matter in the sport.
