Racing
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Charles Leclerc opened his Monaco Grand Prix weekend on top, setting a 1:13.978 to lead Lewis Hamilton by 0.226 seconds in a Ferrari one-two during a first practice session twice stopped by red flags.
Ferrari’s early pace stood out even in a fragmented hour. Hamilton ended second on 1:14.204 and Max Verstappen was third for Red Bull on 1:14.491, with championship leader Kimi Antonelli fourth on 1:14.537 and George Russell fifth on 1:14.983, leaving Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull closely matched at the front of the Monte Carlo field.
Leclerc did not have a clean start to the session. The Monegasque locked up at Mirabeau on his first push lap, went straight on and had to reverse back onto the circuit, but Ferrari recovered quickly from that moment. He first moved to the top with a 1:14.928, then reclaimed first place late in the session after Hamilton had briefly gone fastest following the restart.
The first major interruption came with just under 25 minutes remaining when Isack Hadjar crashed heavily at the Swimming Pool chicane. The Red Bull snapped on entry, hit the barriers hard and suffered major damage. Speaking over team radio, Isack Hadjar, Red Bull driver, said: “I don’t understand, like, why it snapped off like that.” He then added: “I’m sorry.”
That stoppage broke the rhythm just as the field was moving toward medium-tyre qualifying simulations. Antonelli had taken advantage before the red flag, putting Mercedes on top with a 1:14.537 and showing the W17 had the pace to challenge Ferrari. Once the session resumed, Hamilton briefly moved ahead before Leclerc answered with the benchmark lap that settled the order.
A second red flag followed late in the hour when Fernando Alonso hit the barrier and left front-wing debris on the track. The session was restarted with only a minute left, which gave drivers time for little more than practice starts and left several of them without a full final run.
That left Ferrari with the headline result, but the session also hinted at a tighter fight than the final order alone suggests. Antonelli’s earlier medium-tyre lap and Verstappen’s place within half a second of Leclerc pointed to pressure from both Mercedes and Red Bull heading into the weekend’s all-important battle for pole in Monaco.