Charles Leclerc tops second consecutive session in Monaco

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27 May 2022 at 17:02
Last update 27 May 2022 at 17:10
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  • Cameron Smith

Charles Leclerc was once again quickest in Monaco as he continues his impressive form around his home circuit this weekend in a session most notable for Daniel Ricciardo's crash into the swimming pool chicane. The Australian completed just two laps in FP2 before his shunt, which ended his session.

Leclerc exchanged quickest laps with both Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen, but the Ferrari driver was the class of the field around his home roads. The Monegasque is still yet to score points in his home roads in his entire Formula 1 career and hasn't seen the chequered flag either.

However, he's made the best start possible this weekend with two consecutive session-topping laps on Friday.

His Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz has endured several weeks of issues on track, but finished just 0.044 seconds behind Leclerc to make it a Ferrari one-two.

As expected, Red Bull closely followed the Scuderia and it was Sergio Perez who edged out Max Verstappen to third place, while the Dutchman ended the sesion in fifth.

As it happened

With the streets of Monaco treacherous as ever, drivers were keen to get out on track as soon as possible with knowledge that red flags could be frequent and disrupt the session.

Unsurprisingly, the track soon ramped up in speed as the times began tumbling down as FP2 went on. However, one man who wasn't able to imrpove his time was Daniel Ricciardo, who completed just two laps during the entire hour.

The Aussie was late out of the garage, with Guanyu Zhou and Valtteri Bottas the only two close to leaving as late into the session as the former Red Bull driver, and it seemingly cost him. On a flying lap, Ricciardo lost the rear as he headed towards the swimming pool chicane, and he clipped the barrier before he went straight on at the chicane without a front wing and hit the wall.

That incident caused the red flag to be brought out, although the break in action wasn't too long as his McLaren was soon cleared from the track. The accident came just minutes after Sebastian Vettel nearly had an identical incident at the same place on the circuit. The Aston Martin driver also lost the rear, but he was able to correct his error and his rear wing missed the barrier by just an inch as he narrowly avoided a problem.

After Ricciardo's problem, several drivers experienced issues, although they weren't as serious as the Aussie's. Lewis Hamilton locked up and went wide where his former teammate Nico Rosberg did in qualifying in 2014, while George Russell, Lando Norris and Lance Stroll all went too deep around the difficult circuit, although avoided a serious issue.

The aforementioned Norris enjoyed a far more enjoyable session that his teammate, ending the session in fifth place, best of the rest behind Ferrari and Red Bull.

Lewis Hamilton, who suffered a season-defining race at Monaco last season, was a way off George Russell, finishing 12th in comparison to the former Williams' driver's P6 finish.

Monaco struggles continue for Ricciardo

After winning in 2018, two years after he was denied victory by his pit crew in 2016, Ricciardo no longer "runs these streets" like he has previously said. He was lapped by teammate Lando Norris on pure pace last season and suffered a huge crash to disrupt his weekend running.

Norris is still under-the-weather, but managed to finish fifth. Not a good look for the Aussie.

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