F1: Sainz puts Ferrari on top in first Moanco GP practice

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr. put up a fast lap of 1m13.372s to top opening practice for the Monaco GP in his #55 Ferrari.

Fernando Alonso was 2nd fastest for Aston Martin, 0.338 seconds behind on the still green 2-mile Mickey Mouse street circuit,

Lewis Hamilton was third for Mercedes, 0.663s back and just ahead of the #11 Red Bull of Sergio Perez.

Charles Leclerc rounded out the top-5 in the 2nd Ferrari, 0.721s behind.

Verstappen wasn’t happy – he had clutch issues, complained about the car bottoming out, said it was a handful and wound up down in sixth, 0.872s behind.

Russell was another who wasn’t too happy – his complaint was to do with the tires, which he was struggling to warm up and as such wound up down in P15.

The session ended 3 minutes early when Alex Albon plastered the Armco, taking off both the left front and left rear of his Williams.

Albon radioed to confirm that he banged his knees, but is fine other than that. Replays of the incident show that he just lost the rear as he got on the power midway through the corner, clocking the barrier first with the rear and then with the front for good measure.

Practice 1 Results