Briton surpasses Leclerc in the second free practice session of the Monaco GP; Ferrari confirms Friday dominance, while Bortoleto again faces car problems and finishes behind his teammate
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Ferrari ended Friday at the Monaco GP in dominant fashion. After Charles Leclerc led FP1, it was Lewis Hamilton’s turn to finish the second free practice session in first position, securing a one-two for the Italian team and reinforcing the team’s favoritism for Saturday’s qualifying on the streets of the Principality.
Hamilton recorded 1min13s026 during the session and led a table that had Leclerc in second place, completing Ferrari’s dominance on a Friday that put the team ahead of Mercedes, Red Bull, and McLaren. Max Verstappen finished third, followed by Mercedes drivers Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.
The activity began in very different conditions from those seen in the morning. With higher track temperatures and all drivers starting work on medium tires, the teams quickly moved to qualifying programs, using soft tires in the first half of the session.
Right in the first few minutes, Leclerc again showed the pace that put him in the lead of FP1. The Monegasque took the lead with 1min14s240 and began to compete directly with Hamilton, who complained of a small noise in his seat, but did not slow down. Shortly after, the Briton clocked 1min13s729 and took the lead.
Mercedes reappeared among the protagonists. Antonelli was only 16 thousandths behind Leclerc in one of his attempts, but complained throughout the session about the unpredictable behavior of the car in the second sector. In one of his fastest laps, the championship leader went wide at the exit of the tunnel when he was improving his sectors.
Verstappen also entered the dispute. The Dutchman momentarily took the lead by recording 1min13s194, taking advantage of the fact that the Ferraris were still using medium tires at that moment. The response came immediately. First Hamilton regained the lead and, shortly after, Leclerc lowered the time even further to 1min13s137, putting Ferrari back on top.
The session had a Virtual Safety Car interruption after a mechanical problem with Lando Norris’ car. The McLaren driver stopped at the chicane after the tunnel exit and the replay showed the dashboard completely blacking out, as if the car had been turned off in the middle of the track. The incident caused a few minutes of neutralization before normal work resumed.
Racing Bulls managed to get Isack Hadjar back on track after the heavy crash suffered by the Frenchman in FP1. The mechanics’ work was efficient and allowed the driver to return to activity. Even after the morning accident, Hadjar finished the session in sixth place, ahead of Oscar Piastri.
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For Audi, Friday continued to be marked by contrasts. Gabriel Bortoleto again complained about the gearbox synchronization, exactly the same problem identified during the first session. Despite this, the Brazilian managed to extract performance from the car throughout the activity. After starting outside the top 20 and having a lap deleted for exceeding track limits at turn 10, Bortoleto reacted and gradually gained positions.
First he appeared among the ten fastest on medium tires. Then, with soft compounds, he improved to eighth and even momentarily occupied that position during the session. At the end, he finished ninth with a time of 1min14s359, less than three tenths behind Nico Hulkenberg, who was eighth.
In the final minutes, the teams began to focus on race simulations. Times became more stable and the difference between Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren seemed smaller in race pace than in a single lap.
The session still ended with a red flag four minutes from the end. Sergio Pérez had a brake problem, which caught fire at Saint Devote, and a large amount of smoke began to come out of the Cadillac car, forcing race control to interrupt the activity. The track was only cleared in the final moments, just enough time for the drivers to perform starting procedures.
With the end of FP2, Hamilton was in the lead, followed by Leclerc, Verstappen, Antonelli, Russell, Hadjar, Piastri, Hulkenberg, Bortoleto and Oliver Bearman. The result concludes an extremely positive Friday for Ferrari, which led both sessions of the day and arrives as one of the favorites for the most important pole-position of the season.
Formula 1 returns this Saturday (6) with FP3 at 7:30 am, Brasília time. Qualifying starts at 11 am. Follow LIVE and in REAL TIME on F1Mania.net.
Check out the results of FP2 valid for the F1 Monaco GP:
1) Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) 1’13.026
2) Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 1’13.137
3) Max Verstappen (Red Bull/Red Bull Ford) 1’13.194
4) George Russell (Mercedes) 1’13.405
5) Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 1’13.529
6) Isack Hadjar (Red Bull/Red Bull Ford) 1’14.087
7) Oscar Piastri (McLaren/Mercedes) 1’14.088
8) Nico Hülkenberg (Audi) 1’14.094
9) Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) 1’14.359
10) Oliver Bearman (Haas/Ferrari) 1’14.456
11) Pierre Gasly (Alpine/Mercedes) 1’14.497
12) Carlos Sainz (Williams/Mercedes) 1’14.512
13) Alexander Albon (Williams/Mercedes) 1’14.600
14) Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls/Red Bull Ford) 1’14.748
15) Franco Colapinto (Alpine/Mercedes) 1’14.758
16) Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls/Red Bull Ford) 1’14.785
17) Esteban Ocon (Haas/Ferrari) 1’14.845
18) Sergio Pérez (Cadillac/Ferrari) 1’15.116
19) Lando Norris (McLaren/Mercedes) 1’15.274
20) Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin/Honda) 1’15.294
21) Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac/Ferrari) 1’15.759
22) Lance Stroll (Aston Martin/Honda) 1’16.174
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