FP2: Verstappen heads Ferrari duo in second practice

Bouncing again from a troublesome opening session, double world champion Max Verstappen set the tempo in the second practice session on the Monaco Grand Prix, beating the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. F1Technical’s Balázs Szabó studies of Free Practice 2.

Red Bull seemed to be on the again foot in the opening practice session in Monaco, however the reigning world champion crew didn’t want an extended time period to get again to their normal 2023 stage of competitiveness. Two-time world champion Verstappen was quickest in the primary quarter of the session when nearly all of drivers used Pirelli’s mediums, and he might increase the bar when the sphere switched to the red-walled softs.

The Dutchman set a 1m12.462s which was sufficient to cease Ferrari’s march with the Scuderia drivers’ Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz ending the 60-minute practice second and third quickest.

Commenting on his day, Verstappen stated: “I feel FP1 was fairly tough immediately, I wasn’t proud of the journey of the automobile however FP2 was a lot better, the automobile was much more aggressive. Compared to Ferrari, I feel the dealing with continues to be missing on the curbs and the drops in camber.

We must work on that forward of tomorrow as a result of you’ll be able to see that they’re nonetheless very shut, we’ll want extra for qualifying tomorrow to remain forward of them. I felt extra assured in FP2 to push a bit extra, we had a troublesome begin however a great finish. I’m trying ahead to qualifying tomorrow, let’s see what we will do.”

Topping the opening session, Sainz had a promising day till the dying minutes of the second session when he clipped the wall on the entry of Turn 15 and slid into the obstacles on the exit of Turn 16, damaging his automobile and bringing out the pink flags.

It was a troublesome begin for dwelling hero Leclerc as he struggled for tempo and confidence over the course of nearly all of the day, however he instantly discovered good rhythm and confidence for the final a part of the second session and managed to get inside a tenth of Verstappen to complete only a place behind the Dutchman.

Fernando Alonso was extraordinarily sturdy on each the medium and the delicate compound in the late afternoon session, and took fourth together with his teammate Lance Stroll ending down in P11.

Despite shedding the primary quarter of the session to set-up adjustments, Lando Norris was on the tempo in the second session, placing his McLaren in a powerful fifth on the timesheets. By distinction, his teammate Oscar Piastri’s finest effort of 1m13.673s was solely sufficient for a P18.

Driving the upgraded Mercedes W14 for the primary time, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell had been sixth and twelfth quickest, however they set aggressive lap instances on heavy gas load throughout their race simulation run.

Debuting a closely revised automobile, Alpine had a quiet, albeit promising session with Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon setting the ninth and tenth quickest lap respectively.

Also working a massively upgraded automobile, AlphaTauri drivers Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries had been intently matched, however their finest efforts had been solely sufficient to take sixteenth and seventeenth.

Debuting a brand new flooring, revised beam wing and upgraded rear suspension, Valtteri Bottas put his Alfa Romeo in a powerful P8, only a few hundreds of a second adrift of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

Williams drivers rounded out the leaderboard with Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant ending down in P19 and P20 respectively.
However, there may be far more to anticipate from the Thai driver as he solely hit the monitor for the ultimate 10 minutes after his FP1 crash pressured mechanics to suit a brand new gearbox, entrance wing, rear wing, flooring and front-left suspension.