Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

F1 Monaco GP: Mercedes' Hamilton leads Vettel in first practice

Lewis Hamilton beat Formula 1 title rival Sebastian Vettel to the fastest time in opening practice for the Monaco Grand Prix

The Mercedes driver clocked a 1m13.425s on Pirelli's ultra-soft tyres to finish 0.196 seconds clear of Ferrari's Vettel on the streets of Monte Carlo.

Max Verstappen, whose Red Bull team was running a T-wing for the first time, set the fastest first sector overall, but lost time in the middle part of the lap and ended up third quickest, the top three split by just 0.346s.

Verstappen spent a lot of the time in the garage after Red Bull spotted a "potential right rear puncture" and called him into the pits, and he did his best time in the latter part of the session.

Drivers wasted little time in the 90 minutes, Ferrari and Red Bull running the ultra-softs straight away, while Mercedes focused its early running on the super-softs.

Vettel was the early pacesetter, but he was deposed when Mercedes swapped to the ultra-softs with just over 50 minutes to go.

Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton traded fastest laps, with the latter clocking the fastest time on the fourth lap of his run.

Bottas ended up fourth, ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kyvat, who was the best-placed driver on the super-softs.

Kimi Raikkonen kissed the barrier at the Swimming Pool but escaped without damage and was seventh, more than half-a-second slower than team-mate Vettel.

Sergio Perez finished eighth, ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr, who like his team-mate Kvyat was on the super-softs, and Esteban Ocon.

Felipe Massa wound up 11th for Williams, 1.192s off the pace, with Kevin Magnussen 12th in the new-look Haas.

Standing in for Fernando Alonso who is competing in the Indianapolis 500 this weekend, McLaren returnee Jenson Button focused his early running on the soft tyre.

The 2009 world champion then switched to the ultra-soft to go 14th quickest, a tenth-and-a-half slower than team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne.

Romain Grosjean, who spun at Sainte Devote but continued, was 15th.

Nico Hulkenberg failed to complete a flying lap, as Renault spent most of the session investigating a problem with the energy store.

Sauber's Marcus Ericsson also failed to get a time on the board after encountering a gearbox problem.

PRACTICE ONE RESULTS:

Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m13.425s - 40
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m13.621s 0.196s 34
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 1m13.771s 0.346s 32
4 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m13.791s 0.366s 40
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 1m13.854s 0.429s 45
6 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Renault 1m14.111s 0.686s 42
7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m14.164s 0.739s 37
8 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m14.201s 0.776s 32
9 Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso/Renault 1m14.333s 0.908s 39
10 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 1m14.425s 1.000s 39
11 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 1m14.617s 1.192s 37
12 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Honda 1m14.813s 1.388s 38
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1m14.870s 1.445s 34
14 Jenson Button McLaren/Honda 1m14.954s 1.529s 35
15 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m15.321s 1.896s 33
16 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 1m15.595s 2.170s 44
17 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1m15.949s 2.524s 42
18 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber/Ferrari 1m16.258s 2.833s 33
19 Nico Hulkenberg Renault - - 3
20 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari - - 3


Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Red Bull F1 team adds T-wing to 2017 car at Monaco Grand Prix
Next article Why the F1 order is mixed up in Monaco

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe