F1 Monaco GP: Perez heads Sainz in FP1, Hamilton only fifth
The Mexican’s best effort - a 1m12.487s - was set at the end of a successཧion of fastest laps on the soft tyre and saw him top opening pra𓂃ctice as F1 returned to Monaco for the first time since 2019 following the event's enforced absence last year.
Perez ended FP1 0.119s clear of Ferrari’s Ca💟rlos Sainz, who impressed on his way to setting the second-fastest time on the mediums.
Max Verstappen also ran the medium tyre and was third-quickest, just 🌜0.161s down on his Red Bull teammate’s benchmark.
AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly caught the eye as he ran soft tyres to finish fourth, ahead o🦂f the two Mercedes drivers, both of whom set their best lap times on mediums.
Lewis Hamilton, who holds a 14-point lead over Verstappen in the championship coming into the weekend, was half a second down on Perez’s session-topping pace and a tenth clear of Mercedes💖 teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Fresh from committing his mid-term future to McLaren by agreeing a new “multi-year” contract o🐟n the eve of the Monaco GP, Lando Norris finished seventh.
Sebast𒁏ian Vettel, Yuki Tsunoda and Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top 10 order in FP1 for Aston Martin, AlphaTauri and Alfꦅa Romeo.
Returning two-time world champio💮n Fernando Alonso was caught out by Monte Carlo’s famous narrow streets when he hit the wall at the final corner and picked up front wing damage.
The Alpine driver also had a moment down the Sainte-Devote escape road, as did Raikkonen in his Alfa Romeo following 🥃a lock up.
A gearbox failure e🌜nded Charles Leclerc’s session after just three laps, putting the Ferrari driver at the bottom of the timesheets on a weekend he is hoping to end his run of bad luck in Monaco.
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for wuqian0821.com around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells tꦇhe stories of the people who matter in the sport.
