Hamilton fastest as Mercedes pulls clear in Monaco FP2
Lewis Hamilton led the way once again for Mercedes in second practice for the Monaco Grand Prix on Thursday afternoon, narrowly beating teammate Valtteri Bottas to the fastest time of the session.
After edging out Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in FP1 by just five-hundredths of a second, Hamilton’s advantage remained slender in FP2 as he squeezed Bottas out by 0.081 seconds.
Lewis Hamilton led the way once again for Mercedes in second practice for the Monaco Grand Prix on Thursday afternoon, narrowly beating teammate Valtteri Bottas to the fastest time of the session.
After edging out Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in FP1 by just five-hundredths of a second, Hamilton’s advantage remained slender in FP2 as he squeezed Bottas out by 0.081 seconds.
But Mercedes’ edge over the rest of the field grew substantially, with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finishing seven-tenths of a second adrift in third place.
Hamilton and Vettel both survived lock-ups at Turn 1 during the session, keeping their cars out of the wall as FP1 passed by without any major incidents.
Pierre Gasly managed to lead Red Bull’s charge in fourth place, 0.820s back from Hamilton’s time, while Alexander Albon surprisingly featured in P5 for Toro Rosso, nine-tenths off the session benchmark.
Verstappen finished down in sixth place for Red Bull after failing to get in a qualifying simulation due to a water leak that limited his running. The Dutchman reported late in the session that his car did "not feel good” and had “no grip at all”, leaving him on the back foot heading into the remainder of the race weekend.
Kevin Magnussen wound up seventh for Haas ahead of the Alfa Romeo duo of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen, while Charles Leclerc completed the top 10 for Ferrari after also not managing a low-fuel run.
On-track action in Monaco takes a break on Friday, resuming with FP3 on Saturday at 12pm local time (11am UK).
