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Formula 1 Monaco GP

Monaco GP Thursday practice

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Replays show a Ste Devote excursion for Grosjean, who's currently a pretty creditable eighth.
First-run star Albon is sixth, close behind Giovinazzi and ahead of Leclerc. Team-mate Kvyat is struggling to match his times at the moment.
Giovinazzi has put his Alfa Romeo into fifth place, with a 1m12.239s. Just four tenths off Vettel and a quarter of a second up on Raikkonen. Top-drawer.
Stopwatch
Vettel fares better on his first push lap on softs, going top with a 1m11.881s.
Radio Comms
"I'm struggling so much on braking. So much," is Leclerc's report to Ferrari.
Leclerc's first push lap on softs is a mess, and he aborts after locking up and bouncing over the kerb at the Nouvelle Chicane.
Information
After 30 minutes: 1 Hamilton, 2 Bottas, 3 Verstappen, 4 Gasly, 5 Vettel, 6 Albon, 7 Leclerc, 8 Norris, 9 Sainz, 10 Hulkenberg, 11 Raikkonen, 12 Giovinazzi, 13 Grosjean, 14 Magnussen, 15 Perez, 16 Kvyat, 17 Ricciardo, 18 Russell, 19 Stroll, 20 Kubica.
Russell has gone down the road at the first corner after a major lock-up.
Another decent step forward from Verstappen, which takes him to 0.126s off Hamilton. Leclerc is now out on softs.
Russell has now made it to the track after sitting out the first few minutes, and he's gone 18th - quicker than Kubica, but also than Stroll, who is on mediums to Russell's softs.
Gasly is up to fourth, a tenth and a half behind Verstappen.
Verstappen finds a fair bit of pace to move up to third, three tenths behind Hamilton and an improving Bottas (now just 0.033s off).
Missing FP1 hasn't knocked Sainz's confidence too badly - he's up to eighth place, 0.002s quicker than Norris. He would be best of the so-called 'Class B' if not for Albon's excellent effort.
Stopwatch
And there's our first sub-1m12s lap of the weekend - a 1m11.926s from Hamilton.
Stopwatch
Bottas goes quicker still, 1m12.167s. This leaves the fastest Ferrari (Vettel) four tenths off, the fastest Red Bull (Gasly) five tenths off, both on softer tyres.
Vettel has improved too, but remains a quarter of a second down on Bottas.
Hamilton is told "this tyre [the medium] is probably jsut going to keep getting better". He moves up to second, under a tenth slower than Bottas.
Stopwatch
Bottas goes quicker again, 1m12.315s. Closing in on the fastest lap of the weekend.
Verstappen has now moved up to sixth behind Gasly, so we have 19 cars with laptimes on the board. Still no sign of Russell.
Big push lap by Vettel, who encounters some traffic in the third secotr and ends up 0.022s slower than Bottas.
Bottas, Albon, Leclerc, Vettel, Gasly and Hamilton now make up the top six. Everyone but the Mercedes cars are on softs.
Stopwatch
Bottas goes top on mediums, 1m12.708s. This should maybe be concerning for Ferrari, considering they've continued to lap on softs but haven't managed to even clear Albon.
Hamilton and Bottas have joined the track on mediums, meaning all but two drivers - Verstappen and Russell - have been out of the pits.
Leclerc strings together a better lap to outpace Vettel by a tenth, but remains half a tenth behind Albon.
This is a pretty impressive start to the session by Albon, considering team-mate Kvyat has run the same amount of laps but is only 12th, two seconds off. Traffic and/or different programmes perhaps.
Stopwatch
Vettel briefly takes first place from Albon, but the Anglo-Thai racer reclaims it right away, firing in a 1m12.834s.
Leclerc and Vettel have now both done a lap on softs, but they are only second and third behind Albon at the moment.
Radio Comms
Hulkenberg has "an issue with the diff", which Renault promises to fix on the next run. He also has a "mechanical smell" in the car. What's a mechanical smell?
Stopwatch
Three purple sectors from Alex Albon on softs, which amount to a 1m13.082s. This is Toro Rosso's best lap of the weekend so far, after the team ran mediums in the second half of FP1.
Giovinazzi's back ahead by a tenth over Raikkonen. He's still a couple of tenths off his FP1 time, but is now on a harder tyre.
Stopwatch
Now Raikkonen takes the top spot with a 1m13.905s.
Norris goes a quarter of a second slower than Giovinazzi on the same tyre.
Stopwatch
After the first round of flying laps, Antonio Giovinazzi leads with a 1m14.625s, set on mediums.
All but a select few cars ran exclusively the soft tyre in FP1, but the likes of McLaren, Haas and Renault are now trying out the harder compounds.
McLaren pair Norris and Sainz are first out on track, the latter looking to make up for almost entirely missing FP1 due to an electronics issue with a new engine component.

By: Geoff Creighton

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