Charles Leclerc led a surprise Ferrari one-two in Thursday’s practice at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Leclerc topped the second session, 0.112 seconds clear of Carlos Sainz despite missing virtually the entire first session with a gearbox problem.
Sainz was 0.278 seconds quicker than Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who was 0.007secs quicker than title rival Max Verstappen of Red Bull.
Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas was fifth, from McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Leclerc’s performance on his home track was especially impressive, as drivers say that track time is crucial in Monaco to allow them to build up the necessary confidence to push to the limit between the barriers.
But Ferrari looked competitive all day. Sainz was continually up at the sharp end through the first session, ending it second fastest to Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
The Spaniard was then was second fastest to Hamilton after the first runs of the second session, with the drivers on medium tyres, while Leclerc was sixth as he dialled himself into the track.
Sainz set the pace when the drivers switched to the ‘soft’ tyres for their qualifying simulation runs, only for Leclerc, running slightly out of sync after a longer first run, to usurp him a few minutes later.
Leclerc said: “I was quite surprised it ended that way because, here especially, it is very important to do as many laps as you can and unfortunately, with the issue we had in P1, I had only done four laps.
“But I felt quite at ease with the car and managed to put that lap in.
“There is still a bit of margin but on the other hand I am sure that Mercedes and Red Bull have more margin than we have so we shouldn’t get carried away too much.
“It is looking good but for now it is looking a bit too good to believe it.”
Hamilton could certainly have gone quicker – he lost 0.4secs on his fastest lap with a mistake at the harbour-front chicane. But even that would only have put him level with the Ferraris.
Hamilton said: “It feels really cool to be back on track. This track is absolutely mesmerising every time you get the opportunity to drive.
“The Ferraris look really strong, it’s surprising to see them improve so much. But that’s great – it means more competition.
“It is a track where you need to walk before you can run, but you have to do that quickly.
“The car is good, we made some decent steps with the balance of the car and I am just generally happy.”
Verstappen said he was struggling with the Red Bull.
“We are too slow, and not just a little bit,” he said. “I think quite a bit. We need to really find some pace. Everyone has traffic so you have to look more to optimum sectors and we are quite a bit off. And it also didn’t feel great to drive.
“I am just surprised by how competitive Ferrari are but it just shows that we are pretty weak. They are doing very well and we are weak, so the offset is very big. We can look into things but a lot of things need to change, I think.”
The first day’s practice is an unreliable gauge of the true competitive order because it is not possible to know the specifications in which teams run their cars.
That leaves open the possibility that Ferrari could have been running with a lower fuel load than the title contenders, and therefore look stronger than they really are.
But McLaren’s Lando Norris, just a point ahead of Leclerc in fourth place in the world championship after four races this season, said he expected Ferrari to be competitive in Monaco.
“I don’t think Ferrari are surprising,” Norris said. “The public don’t get to see what we get to see – onboards and data and stuff. We knew they were going to be fast.
“I texted Carlos before the weekend and saying: ‘You are going to be very good this weekend and have a chance to win.’ It is expected from us. They are looking strong, which isn’t good for us.”
The session ended five minutes early when Mick Schumacher crashed at Massenet, the fast left-hander at the top of the hill just before Casino Square.
Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda also crashed, damaging his car’s right rear corner on the exit of the Swimming Pool section and bringing his session to a close after just 11 laps.
Behind Norris, Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly was seventh fastest, ahead of Perez, Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, who was complaining about problems with his eyes during the session.
