Charles Leclerc Shines On Home Turf

On the first day of track action for the Monaco Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc made the most of being on home turf. The Ferrari driver, who was born here and won last year at this track, was surprisingly quickest in both free practice sessions: 1’11”964 in the first one and 1’11”355 in the second.

Clearly, Ferrari is looking very competitive as Lewis Hamilton was third in the second session in 1’11”460, but the McLarens are up there too, with Oscar Piastri second just 38 thousandths slower than Leclerc, while Lando Norris is fourth in 1’11”677.

All three compounds were used over the 120 minutes of practice. The Soft did the most work (574 laps in total), followed by the Medium (427) and then the Hard (221). 13 drivers have already used a set of C4 and will therefore only have one available for Sunday’s race when, as per the modified Sporting Regulations, two tyre changes will be obligatory.

Charles Leclerc – P1 in FP1 & FP2

“Monaco is always very special, not just to me but to anyone driving on this track. On Fridays, everyone is taking their reference points. It’s still too early to feel very confident for the weekend, but it has been a positive first day on track for us. Our one-lap pace was strong and I felt comfortable in the car, no matter which compound we were running on. Qualifying is going to be fundamental around here as usual and we have to be starting in front if we want to bring home a good result.”

Simone Berra – Pirelli Chief Engineer

“Quite a busy day with lots of laps and plenty of data gathered. It was important for us to see how the C6 performed after it made its debut in Imola and we can say that, here too, the indications we saw last week were also confirmed today. The softest tyre in the 2025 range is slightly faster than the C5 and, with one or two cool-down laps, recovers much of its performance. It was also clear that, given that it exhibits the traits of an extremely soft compound, the drivers might feel a little less confident with it when trying to push for a time right from the first flying lap. This could potentially open the door to the Medium also being used in one or more segments of qualifying.

Furthermore, with the special sporting regulation in place for this weekend, the choice of tyres for the grid-deciding session will have a significant knock-on effect for the race. For example, today 13 drivers from seven teams chose to already use a set of Hards, thus having just one left for Sunday. Five drivers, (Piastri, Norris, Hamilton, Hadjar and Lawson), used one set of Mediums in each of the two sessions.

As is often the case in Monaco, the lap times came down bit by bit with every passing lap, partly because the track is rubbering-in, with a new surface from turn 12 to 3, but mainly because the drivers grow in confidence. However, the times have been slightly slower than in the same session last year, when once again Leclerc was fastest, in 1’11”278.

From a tyre wear perspective, we saw some graining on the Mediums at the end of the long runs, something which is totally predictable at this track and in these conditions.”