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, ending 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 Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, 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 time sheet using the soft tires. However, his performance was not as strong as at the beginning of the weekend. Oscar Piastri showed 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 lagged 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 Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Williams’ Alex Albon, and the Haas drivers.
Lance Stroll n’a pas pu égaler le temps d’Alonso et a terminé à la 15ème place, suivi par Esteban Ocon, Logan Sargeant et Ricciardo. Valtteri Bottas a eu un contretemps dans la chicane Swimming Pool, causant des dommages à la suspension de sa voiture Sauber et le forçant à s’arrêter à la Rascasse. Cet incident a entraîné un bref drapeau rouge et a laissé Bottas sans temps enregistré au tableau, le plaçant en dernière position lors de la séance d’entraînement.
