Hamilton fastest, mixed fortunes for Monaco GP favourites in FP1

Lewis Hamilton topped the opening free practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix, a session interrupted by a five-minute red flag caused by Sauber driver Zhou Guanyu shedding debris after a brush with the wall.

Zhou lost the rear in the first corner, and although he corrected this meant he was too wide at the exit and clipped the wall, with his front wing endplate sustaining significant damage and showering the track with debris. Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was the next driver through and ran through the debris field, picking up a large piece of Sauber bodywork and suffering minor damage to the front of his floor.

The session restarted with 10 minutes remaining, but nobody was able to depose Hamilton who had set a time of 1m12.169s to take top spot from McLaren driver Oscar Piastri by 0.029 seconds before the red flag.

With the Mercedes working well in the slow corners and George Russell third-fastest, 0.126s slower than Hamilton, it was a promising start to the weekend for the team, which brought upgrades including a Monaco-specific rear/beam wing combination as well as a modified floor and front wing.

THE FAVOURITES

The expectation heading into the weekend was that the battle at the front will be between McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull. McLaren was on top of that group, with Norris backing up Piastri’s second place by setting the fourth-fastest time.

Leclerc, who was able to return to the track after the red flag after the front of his floor was patched up by the Ferrari team, was fifth and the quickest of those not to run the soft tyres.

Like team-mate Carlos Sainz, he started the session using hards then switched to mediums, meaning that the 0.228s pace deficit to the front is encouraging. Sainz ended up 10th, just under eight tenths off the pace.

However, Red Bull was conspicuous by its absence from the top 10.

Although Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez didn’t run the soft tyres, both struggled. Verstappen was only 11th fastest, 0.815s off the pace, with Perez one place and a quarter-of-a-second behind.

Verstappen complained that “the car is on a knife’s edge” and “so loose on the bumps”, while Perez reported traction troubles. Perez also picked up a puncture late on that curtailed his running.

Verstappen had several wall-brushing moments, notably in the Tabac right-hander where he grazed the advertising hoarding at the exit of the turn.

ASTON MARTIN ENCOURAGEMENT

After a difficult Imola weekend, Aston Martin ended up sixth and seventh fastest courtesy of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, the duo separated by just 0.014s.

Both Aston Martin drivers set their time on softs, which was enough to put them ahead of RB duo Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo who both put in top-10 times having also used the Pirelli C5s.

Sauber, Haas and Williams drivers occupied 13th through to 17th with Valtteri Bottas heading that group - albeit with neither Haas nor Williams running the soft tyres.

TROUBLE FOR ALPINE

Twelve months ago, Esteban Ocon bagged an unexpected podium finish for Alpine founded on qualifying a superb fourth (and starting third) but it was a slow start for the struggling French-owned squad this year.

Ocon had a trouble-free session but was only 18th, two seconds off the pace and complained during FP1 about the front end bouncing in corners. That lack of speed is no surprise for a car that has been weak in terms of traction so far this year, although Ocon did not run the soft tyres.

But team-mate Pierre Gasly had an even more difficult session as he was called in after four laps to investigate a power unit problem. He later headed back on track but reported “no power” and returned to the garage for work to be done on a what the team described as a wastegate issue.

He was able to return to the track at the end of the session on mediums, but could not climb off the bottom of the timesheets in his short run.