Monaco GP FP2: Leclerc sets the pace on Friday

Leclerc and Ferrari were playing down their chances ahead of this weekend's Monaco GP, a race the Monegasque won last year.

But as it appears and after both practice sessions on Friday, Leclerc seems in a good position to fight for a second win in a row this year at his home race.

And while four-time Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen was the closest to Leclerc in FP1, it was Oscar Piastri that took over in the second practice which ended second fastest, 0.038s off the pace of the local hero.

Piastri survived a meeting with the barriers earlier in FP1 which meant he lost his front wing, but bounced back.

Confirming Ferrari's pace was Lewis Hamilton who was third fastest in the other car, 0.105s slower than his teammate while Lando Norris was fourth in the other McLaren but over three tenths off the pace.

In fifth place came Liam Lawson in the VCARB, albeit 0.468s away from the benchmark while his teammate, Isack Hadjar was sixth fastest, 0.019s behind his teammate.

Hadjar, despite his strong time, has an eventful session clipping the barriers twice, the second hit causing suspension damage towards the end.

Fernando Alonso finished FP2 a decent seventh ahead of Williams' Alex Albon who was eighth while Kimi Antonelli was ninth.

Verstappen finished the session in tenth after being second fastest in FP1.

Ferrari surprisingly set the pace in the first practice session for the 2025 Monaco GP despite Leclerc never being happy with his car while McLaren and Red Bull Racing chased.

There were quite some incidents on track - impeding and wall brushing - but thankfully no disasters especially with six rookies trying to get up to speed around the streets of the principality.

Leclerc survived a moment with Lance Stroll in FP1, the former getting away with a broken front wing while the latter had to sit out the whole session as he suffered gearbox and rear suspension damage.

To add insult to injury, Stroll was handed a one-place grid penalty for the race on Sunday.

And while the C6 tyre which made its debut at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix one week ago did not last one lap around the Italian venue, they seemed to hold up pretty well around Monaco with drivers going for more than one push lap on them.

So will Ferrari maintain their form? Are McLaren sandbagging? What of Red Bull Racing and Verstappen who ran Leclerc close? How will Mercedes manage the higher temperatures?

Let's see of FP2 gives some answers.

The session kicked off in dry conditions as track temperatures slightly increased, registering 41 degrees Celsius while air temperature also increases to 23 degrees.

While Soft compounds dominated the start of FP1, the Mediums and Hards were the order of the day in FP2 as only Oliver Bearman and Carlos Sainz started on the Softs.

Six minutes into the session and after posting the fastest lap time at that moment, Verstappen radioed asking his team to "fix the upshifts" adding that he was suffering from the "same problem".

But moments after that, Hadjar clipped the barrier at Turn 10 (coming out of he tunnel) and suffered from puncture and stopped in the middle of the track bringing the Red flag out.

"Should I try to bring it," he asked his pitwall and started the long journey back to the pits.

The session was soon restarted as marshals cleared some debris from the track. 48 minutes remained on the clock.

While still waiting for his turn in the pitlane, Verstappen complained about the quality of the tear-offs on his helmet his engineering assuring that would be sorted overnight.

But soon Piastri crashed head on into the wall at Turn 1. He reversed back on track but left his front in the barriers.

The Red Flag was out again.

Replay showed that he locked up but remained committed to the corner which he should've aborted and sent it into the run-off, but the Aussie didn't.

Replay showed that Verstappen, once again, had a close moment with Gabriel Bortoleto in the swimming pool session and from his radio message, it was clear he was not happy about it.

The session was restarted with 35 minutes on the clock.

Esteban Ocon had a moment with Yuki Tsunoda on the track and then brushed the barriers in his Haas in the swimming pool area. Bearman did the same moments later.

Leclerc was having fun out there, pushing the limits one point going super close to the barriers at the exit of Turn 1. Perfection.

Hadjar wasn't having the best 0f sessions as he had another incident in the final ten minutes of the session as he was seen driving around with advertising hoarding stuck to his tyre.

Replay showed that he hit the barrier at the exit of Turn 1 after finishing a flying lap that put him up in sixth. He limped back to the pits with a damaged suspension.

"Man I am so stupid, I think I am just dumb," Hadjar said over the radio.

Verstappen on the other hand, while on a long run, went deep at Turn 5 and ended up in the run-off area. He struggled to engage revers gear, but was eventually successful.

No qualifying runs were repeated towards the end of the session which was concluded with the usual practice starts.