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Formula 1
Monaco GP
F1 Monaco GP Live Commentary and Updates – FP3 & Qualifying
Saturday's action from the eighth round of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
F1 returns to Monaco with Charles Leclerc having led the way in Friday practice from Lewis Hamilton, who topped topped the opening session for Merecedes.
FP3 starts at 11:30 BST (12:30 local time) followed by qualifying at 15:00 BST (16:00 local time).
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Another improvement from Leclerc pushes the benchmark to a 1m12.242s and ensures he remains ahead of a flying Tsunoda. The RB driver launches into second on a 1m12.526s, albeit 0.284s adrift.
Verstappen improves again but stays third, while Norris moves up to fourth. Incidents of potential impeding against Verstappen and Magnussen have been cleared by the stewards, meanwhile.
Moments before Leclerc moved the bar, Verstappen had become the closest challenger yet to Piastri. He's currently third, ahead of Sainz, Albon, Magnussen, Norris, Russell, Hulkenberg and Tsunoda in P10.
The yellow flags were briefly out because Piastri had joined Hamilton in paying a visit to the Turn 1 run-off, but he rejoins with no damage.
Stopwatch
Leclerc sets a new benchmark at 1m12.521s to go 0.163s clear of Piastri.
Even with one car out of the picture, it's still a very busy circuit out there. Verstappen and Magnussen are among those getting irate at traffic.
The Aston Martins are doing things a bit differently to the rest, as they are running on the medium tyres. Everybody else, barring Bottas who is of course in debrief now, is on the softs.
Leclerc now goes second on a 1m13.043s, 0.168s down on Piastri. And showing no sign of being impacted adversely by his earlier misjudgement, Magnussen bounds up to third.
The times are tumbling now, with Russell besting Hulkenberg before Piastri then took away the top spot on a 1m12.875s. Hamilton meanwhile has visited the run-off at Sainte Devote and tells his engineer "tyres are dead".
Leclerc's first effort is slower than Hulkenberg, putting him 0.139s behind. Magnussen meanwhile had a little spin down at Mirabeau, executing an excellent 180 spin-turn in the run-off area after a not so excellent lock-up that put him there in the first place.
Stopwatch
Russell puts his first time on the board and goes top on a 1m13.988, but that is immediately bettered by Hulkenberg's 1m13.652s.
Among those heading out on track on softs is Leclerc. Will he be able to get close to his FP2 benchmark? Moments before Bottas's wall-bothering, he was informed by his engineer that it was projected the track will be half a second slower.
With Bottas's car pushed behind the wall, the session has now resumed. A flood of cars heading out on the softs after the quiet start to the session.
Hamilton appeared to be caught out by Bottas's position on the track and had to come to a halt himself, before reversing and navigating the stricken Sauber.
Replays show that Bottas had a mid-corner slide that took him closer than he'd like to the barrier, initially making contact with his right-rear which then hooked the front into a more solid impact that did the damage.
The Sauber driver can't get his car to turn at the Rascasse with his front-right wheel totally deranged. He's blocking the track, leaving no choice but to halt the session so he can be recovered.
Red flag
Trouble for Bottas! He's clanged the wall with his right-front on the exit of the Swimming Pool and is stranded. Red flag.
Russell has returned to the track now but is taking it a bit easier, lifting and coasting through the Casino Square section. Magnussen meanwhile improves, setting a fastest third sector, but stays behind Hamilton.
Stopwatch
Hamilton is comfortably quicker than Magnussen and moves to the head of the timesheets on a 1m14.104s.
A 1m14.683s is the opening gambit for Magnussen. We're not sure what fuel loads the Haas is running here, but as a reminder, the benchmark time from FP2 yesterday set by Leclerc was a 1m11.278s.
Magnussen does look like he's giving it some beans, so we'll shortly have our first lap on the board. Hamilton joins him out on track with soft rubber also on his Mercedes.
The Aston Martins pit too, leaving only Magnussen (on softs) out on track at the moment.
The McLarens came straight back into the pits after their first laps on the mediums, so we've yet to see a lap on the board. Aston Martin now heads out with both its drivers on hards.
Quote
"There's no vibrations, which is obviously good," Russell tells his crew. "The steering is very light turning left and heavier turning right."
Russell wasn't exactly pushing though and has come into the pits at the end of what would have been his first timed lap. The McLarens have also returned to the box and switched over to mediums.
Russell has immediately gone out on the soft and tells his engineers that the steering feels very different compared to yesterday. The McLarens and Ricciardo follow, but on the hard tyre.
Green flag
And we're under way in Monaco, with George Russell the first man out.
Drivers are getting ready to clamber into their cars following the conclusion of the F3 sprint race, won by Alpine junior Nikola Tsolov. A good omen perhaps for the beleaguered French team?
Another element that makes Monaco Saturday lively is that the soft compound tyres here are the softest in the range - the C5s. So this truly is about as quick as you'll see the heavyweight F1 beasts of 2024 traversing these fabled streets.
Charles Leclerc was quickest in FP2 yesterday, and heads into today as the acknowledged favourite for pole. Here's what we learned from yesterday's running.
The weather is pleasant in the principality, with air temperatures at 21.7 °C, but it is also overcast. The forecast predicts a 10% chance of rain.
This session will be important to help teams fine-tune their set-ups for tomorrow's race, as they understand how long a set of tyres can go before losing the edge on performance. And towards the end of the hour-long session we can also anticipate that teams will be throwing sets of softs at the drivers to help them build confidence for qualifying.
But before the qualifying session that will set the grid, and if the weather plays ball will largely determine the result given this circuit's limited overtaking opportunities, we have the final practice session coming up in a little over 10 minutes time.
Time here really does come from pushing the boundaries and building up the level of risk drivers are willing to take. As Carlos Sainz puts it: “That's the beauty about Monaco - that suddenly for two laps in Q3 you forget that there are walls and you're driving like there's literally a kerb and grass and gravel rather than a wall.”
Remember last year, when Max Verstappen appeared destined to be missing out on the all-important pole position only to turn things around in an utterly remarkable sector three? It was Formula 1 arguably at its best. And for all tuning in to qualifying later, it will be a sight to behold the world's finest drivers giving it absolutely everything on one of the most unforgiving circuits around.
Saturday in Monaco is one of the most exciting days of the entire F1 season. All the usual talking points about getting the tyres in the right window go - erm - out of it because qualifying here is all about how close drivers dare get to the barriers lining the circuit.
Hello and welcome one and all to Autosport's live text coverage of Saturday's track action from Monaco. Let's get stuck in.
By: Autosport Staff
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