The Monaco Grand Prix is currently being broadcast live on 5 Live and the BBC Sport website. In Friday’s first practice session, Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes led the way, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in second place. Hamilton edged out Piastri by just 0.029 seconds, while George Russell in the second Mercedes finished in third place. Lando Norris from McLaren and Charles Leclerc from Ferrari rounded out the top five.
Fernando Alonso from Aston Martin had a strong showing in sixth place, while Max Verstappen from Red Bull struggled to keep up in 11th place, 0.815 seconds behind the pace. Verstappen had previously expressed concerns about the difficulty of racing at Monaco.
The top five drivers were closely matched, with Russell just 0.126 seconds behind Hamilton and Leclerc 0.228 seconds off the pace. Alonso was slightly behind with a 0.606 second gap between him and the leaders.
However, the session had to be briefly stopped to remove carbon-fibre debris left on the track by Zhou Guanyu’s Sauber. Despite some close calls, including Logan Sergeant hitting the inside wall, most drivers were able to continue without major incidents.
Later in the day, more practice sessions were scheduled to give drivers further time to familiarize themselves with the challenging Monaco street circuit and fine-tune their skills for race day.
Overall, Friday’s first practice session provided an exciting glimpse into what could be an epic battle for supremacy at this year’s Monaco Grand Prix. With such a close competition among the top drivers, anything can happen on race day!
