Max Verstappen edged Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to top the timesheet in Practice Two.
Max Verstappen recovered from a troubling start to the Monaco Grand Prix weekend to narrowly top Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in second practice.
Verstappen, whose Red Bull team have dominated the opening five races of the season, endured a frustrating opening session on Friday as he could only finish sixth amid struggles to get to grips with his RB19 around Formula 1’s most famous circuit.
However, a much-improved display from the world championship leader saw him produce a lap of 1:12.462 to finish six hundredths of a second clear of Leclerc, who will be seeking a third successive pole at his home circuit on Saturday.
Sainz had enjoyed a hugely-impressive day, topping Practice One and showing strong pace on hard tyres early in the later session, but his afternoon was ruined by a heavy shunt at the Swimming Pool Chicane.
Fernando Alonso, who has been open about his belief he can claim a first F1 win for 10 years this weekend, was a little over 0.2s off Verstappen’s leading time for Aston Martin.
Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez, who is also the Dutchman’s nearest challenger at the top of the drivers’ standings, failed to live up to the reputation he has earned for delivering at street circuits, as he finished seventh.
“I am excited to get back to racing this week,” said Verstappen. “Not racing in Imola was the right decision and I know it was not taken lightly but some things are obviously more important than racing and this was one of those occasions. Looking ahead to Monaco, qualifying is so important there so we need to make sure we are as strong as we can be in that session. The circuit in Monaco is super tight, even more than other street circuits. So, nailing a quali lap here is extremely difficult but at the same time very exciting. The race is usually heavily dependent on the strategy as overtaking is almost impossible. And of course, I live in Monaco so it’s nice to go home every evening during the Grand Prix weekend.”
Verstappen continued, “I think FP1 was quite tricky today, I wasn’t happy with the ride of the car but FP2 was much better, the car was a lot more competitive. Compared to Ferrari, I think the handling is still lacking on the curbs and the drops in camber. We need to work on that ahead of tomorrow because you can see that they are still very close, we’ll need more for qualifying tomorrow to stay ahead of them. I felt more confident in FP2 to push a bit more, we had a difficult start but a good end. I’m looking forward to qualifying tomorrow, let’s see what we can do.”
Practice 3 and Qualifying will take place tomorrow and the race Sunday.