Charles Leclerc, the Monaco driver, once again demonstrated his dominance in the final practice session of the Monaco Grand Prix. He set the fastest lap time in both the second practice session and the final hour of practice, finishing with a time of 1:11.369s. Despite a scare near the wall at the Nouvelle chicane and a lock-up at Rascasse, Leclerc managed to maintain a nearly two-tenths advantage over Max Verstappen of Red Bull, who finished in second place. Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, suffered a significant lock-up at turn 1, damaging his tires and forcing his Mercedes car to spend a considerable amount of time in the garage.
Despite this setback, Hamilton was able to recover and secure the third position on the timing sheet using the soft tires. However, his performance was not as strong as in the beginning of the weekend. Oscar Piastri showcased McLaren’s speed by finishing in fourth place, with Lando Norris just a tenth of a second behind him in eighth place. Sergio Perez struggled throughout the session but managed to improve his time at the end, securing fifth place and pushing George Russell to sixth.
Carlos Sainz, Leclerc’s teammate at Ferrari, consistently trailed behind him in all three practice sessions, finishing over six tenths of a second behind in seventh place. Yuki Tsunoda, aiming for another Q3 appearance, finished in ninth place, eight tenths of a second ahead of his RB teammate Daniel Ricciardo. Fernando Alonso completed the top 10, leading the Aston Martin drivers and narrowly beating out Pierre Gasly of Alpine, Alex Albon of Williams, and the Haas drivers.
Lance Stroll was unable to match Alonso’s time and finished in 15th place, followed by Esteban Ocon, Logan Sargeant, and Ricciardo. Valtteri Bottas had a mishap at the Swimming Pool chicane, causing damage to the suspension of his Sauber car and forcing him to stop at Rascasse. This incident led to a brief red flag and left Bottas with no time recorded on the leaderboard, placing him last in the practice session.
