By Peter Habicht
Red Bull was the fastest team in today’s final practice at the Monaco Grand Prix with Max Verstappen (1m12.776s) ahead of teammate Sergio Perez (1m12.849) in a session ended that early when Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes oversteered into the barriers with just over five minutes left.
Lance Stroll was third fastest in his Aston Martin, followed by the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and the McLaren of Lando Norris. Norris had experienced an issue with his power unit in yesterday’s second practice session requiring the team to break curfew to further investigate afterwards resulting in no changes to the car’s components.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was sixth, followed by Sainz’s teammate and Monaco’s own Charles Leclerc. Hamilton was next running in eighth when his car lost control at low speed, impacting the wall just ahead of Portiers. Esteban Ocon finished ninth fastest, but not after coming to a halt in the tunnel section early on in the session with a braking issue.
Valttieri Bottas drove a relatively incident free session for Alfa Romeo and was tenth fastest, followed by Mercedes’ George Russell and Keven Magnussen, whose session was ended with about 10 minutes left after his car stopped on track with a drive issue. Teammate Nico Hulkenberg was next fastest, followed by Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin.
Farther back were Yuki Tsunoda’s Alpha Tauri. Guanyu Zhou’s Alfa Romeo, the Williams of Logan Sargeant and Alex Albon, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and the Alpha Tauri of Nyck DeVries.
With overtaking around the narrow streets a factor for the race on Sunday, qualifying well at the Monaco circuit will be necessary for success and begins later today at 4pm.
