Charles Leclerc led the two training sessions at the Monaco Grand Prix, while Daniel Ricciardo’s hell season continued as he slid sideways into the impact barriers, with his damaged McLaren lifted from the track by a crane.
The Australian came out unscathed from the prang, which occurred on his first proper lap of the second training session and ruled him out of the entire session.
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“It was weird. I think if someone crashes there, it’s usually seen at the exit if maybe it takes too much sidewalk on turn 14 and then loses the car. But I already started losing the car pretty much before turn 13,” he said. dir Ricciardo.
“We’ve probably gone a little too far in a couple of areas with the setup. We’ve had a good morning and obviously try a few things for FP2 to try to maximize performance a little more, but let’s say we’ve outperformed it and not I don’t know until I try it.
Ricciardo slips off the track as officials raise the yellow flag. (F1)
“It was obviously my first time around, so I couldn’t read much of it.
“I did my best to save him, but I couldn’t. Obviously we missed the whole session, but I’m fine.
“Anyway, tomorrow we’ll have another chance and I’m sure tonight they’ll fix the car and put it in a good place for tomorrow.”
Charles Leclerc led the two training sessions on Friday, where the Ferrari driver could take advantage of a victory on the home track to return to the top of the Formula 1 classification.
Ferrrari ended the day with a good finish, as Carlos Sainz Jr. he was the second fastest behind his teammate Leclerc.
Ricciardo’s McLaren was removed with a crane. (Twitter)
Red Bull was just behind the Ferrari drivers, as Sergio Pérez and Max Verstappen were third and fourth fastest, but did not have the speed of a Ferrari lap.
Leclerc lost the F1 points lead last week in Spain. The reigning F1 champion Verstappen has won three consecutive races to take Leclerc out of first place in the standings. Leclerc won two of the first three races to build a 46-point lead in the standings, but Verstappen has four wins and now leads Leclerc by six points.
But Leclerc is motivated in Monaco; he has never finished an F1 race on the streets of his hometown. He feels so comfortable with the circuit that he goes to the track from his apartment and even though he won pole last year, he didn’t even start the race due to damage to his Ferrari.
Mercedes, meanwhile, had a couple of disappointing training sessions with George Russell and seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton. The duo follows Ferrari and Red Bull in speed and the new Mercedes has struggled with what is called a “porpoise”, an aerodynamic problem where cars jump and bounce on the track.
Hamilton struggled in Friday’s second practice and was 12th in the speed table, 1.61 seconds behind Leclerc.
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