F1 Monaco GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP1 & FP2
Friday's action from the eighth round of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
F1 returns to Monaco for its annual dash around the principality, where all the focus will be on what is arguably the most important qualifying session of the season.
With the gap between Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari appearing to shrink with the latest raft of updates and the walls waiting to claim unsuspecting drivers, the pressure will be high not to make a mistake.
FP1 starts at 12:30 BST (13:30 local time) followed by FP2 at 16:00 BST (17:00 local time).
Live Standings
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Summary
Summary
Charles Leclerc set fastest time in second practice for Formula 1's Monaco Grand Prix
Ferrari driver is quickest in every sector to outpace Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes by 0.188s as Max Verstappen ends up over half a second off the pace for Red Bull
Verstappen complained that he was "jumping like a kangaroo" before clipping the wall with left-rear exiting Turn 7
Stroll and Gasly also bump the wall hard with right-fronts at the Swimming Pool
Leaderboard
Leclerc, Ferrari
Hamilton, Mercedes
Alonso, Aston Martin
Verstappen, Red Bull
Norris, McLaren
Sainz, Ferrari
Stroll, Aston Martin
Perez, Red Bull
Albon, Williams
Russell, Mercedes
12 Days
01 hrs
01 min
43 sec
Full coverageCheck out our full coverage of Miami GP
Most of the F1 teams have shown off their special styling tweaks and track-specific updates for Monaco, with McLaren the boldest on the looks front, with a Senna yellow and green tribute.
The McLaren MCL38, with a special Senna themed livery
Off of the track the latest driver market murmurs continue, and the silly season has taken a fresh twist with Sainz linked to a Williams move. Here's the latest.
The drivers have made their way to the garages ahead of the start of opening practice. As you'll be familiar with, we've got 60 minutes of track action to come followed by another hour this afternoon. No sprint race format tweaks this weekend.
Those helicopter shots overlooking Monaco never get old. In modern day motorsport it feels even more special to have races like this - you'd get laughed at trying to propose a new race like this with a track like this today.
Hamilton leads out the pack to start the Monaco traffic jam. As predicted, Piastri is warned over team radio of light rain forecast to hit towards the end of the session. So plenty of early running coming up.
Only Albon is missing from the action, while everyone is on hards apart from Verstappen and Piastri who are on mediums. Given this race is so kind on tyres, expect drivers to get through the harder compounds in practice to keep their soft tyre stock high for quali and the race.
With said mediums on, Piastri leads the early laps with a 1m18.002s, 0.047s up on Verstappen. The TV director has spotted Jos Verstappen trackside - it has been a while since we've seen him, can't think why...
A flurry of improvements has the timing screen rolling like a Monaco casino slot machine (sorry, that's our one and only of those). Norris is on top now with a 1m15.294s.
Hamilton locks up into the Nouvelle chicane and takes to the run-off area to avoid a major drama. Hulkenberg suffers a similar fate at Sainte Devote, and slides his car around in the run-off to get going again.
Gasly is told to pit as his Alpine has an engine issue. The French driver has just five laps to his name so far as his crew gets to work on fixing the car.
TV replays show Verstappen give an inside wall a very firm kiss with his front-right tyre. That is as probably as close as he'd want to get without risking car damage.
Bottas is the latest to inspect the run-off on the left of the first corner but he's able to get going again. Not such good fortune for Gasly, who reports he has no power and pits once again.
Gasly is still sat in his Alpine in the garage but it isn't looking like a quick fix that the team had previously hoped it would be. Everyone else is able to run smoothly so far.
Most drivers are already finding the limits around the track and having a few lock ups and near-misses with the walls. Yesterday the drivers explained it is about building the speed through every session to get it all perfect for qualifying. Nobody wants to bin it early and it wreck their weekend.
Verstappen splits the Ferrari 1-2 to go second with a 1m13.476s but says "the car is on a knife edge" over team radio. He was about a knife's width from hitting the barriers.
Hamilton has moved up to second with a 1m13.297s on the medium tyres. A few drivers have switched to softs for the first time in this session to get a feel for what will be the most popular compound this weekend.
Having led the earlier running, Leclerc has shifted on to the mediums, rather than the softs like most others, and goes third quickest - within two-tenths of Piastri's leading lap time.
The red flag has been called for due to debris on track. Zhou clipped the outside wall coming out of Sainte Devote, losing part of his front wing, which was collected by Leclerc with the debris clattering his car floor.
And of course this is the time the rain decides to make its entrance. Nothing too serious to stop running at the moment, but just another factor to keep the drivers alert.
That red flag has rather disrupted the rhythm of the session, with a big split in what tyres each driver is on for the final part of FP1. Verstappen, on mediums, doesn't look like he'll show a glimpse of Red Bull's true pace.
A pitlane incident between Magnussen and Tsunoda has been noted for failing to follow race director orders. Magnussen nipped out ahead of Tsunoda when the session resumed but it looked like no harm done despite the Japanese driver stating "that's a penalty".
Leclerc carried Zhou’s debris all the way to the hairpin where it came loose and ended up underneath the barriers. It was recovered by the marshals during the red flag.
