Sanz is faster in the first practice of the Monaco GP

Carlos Sainz set the fastest lap time in the first practice session of the Monaco Grand Prix. The session ended early after Alexander Albon hit the first corner.

The weekend on the streets of Duchy was launched by Sergio Perez, who was the first to leave his garage. He was immediately followed on the track by Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou from Alfa, Nyck de Vries and Yuki Tsunoda from AlphaTauri, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll from Aston, and Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes and Esteban Ocon from Alpine.

Perez also got the first time of the weekend with a 1:28.993, which was a long way off due to heavy traffic in the final corner. The first rep result was set by Lando Norris with a close 1:18.618. After a quarter of an hour, all the drivers from this year’s field appeared on the results table and the list was opened by Charles Leclerc, who raised the standard to 1:14.562 in the middle set. Ahead of partner Carlos Sainz, Max Verstappen was third, Fernando Alonso fourth and Lance Stroll fifth.

Max Verstappen was very critical of his car, who asked Red Bull to enter the garage, and threatened that in these settings. it just falls apart on obstacles. Lance Stroll had a slight contact with the wall, flew at the entrance of the last corner and hit the left rear wheel. The Canadian, however, escaped damage and was able to continue driving.

Just before the halfway point, Logan Sargeant found himself in trouble. Driving into the tunnel, the American lost power in his Williams car, however, he was able to roll at high speed to the pit lane, where his car was recovered by mechanics.

After the first thirty minutes, the new leader of the table was Lewis Hamilton in a completely rebuilt Mercedes W14. The Englishman clocked 1:14.035 in the yellow Pirelli jersey ahead of Carlos Sainz (+0.210), Lando Norris (+0.432), Max Verstappen (+0.454) and Charles Leclerc (+0.497). At the same time, the partner of the seven-time champion – George Russell, highlighted the problem with the braking system, which it slows down badly car.

About twenty-two minutes from the end, the red flag was shown after an incident with Nico Hulkenberg. The representative of Haas, entering the chicane behind the tunnel, hit the left rear wheel against the barrier, spinning. The German was able to return to driving and went to the mechanics, but pieces of broken rim scattered on the track required cleaning intervention.

After just three minutes, the session restarted and Fernando Alonso climbed to the top of the table in the first attempt, dropping under the 1:14 barrier with a 1:13.907 mark. Soon the result of the Spaniard was beaten by his partner Carlos Sainz, who turned out to be faster by less than ten seconds. In the end, the Ferrari driver was able to raise the bar to 1:13.372 and this guaranteed him the first place in the table due to Alexander Albon’s accident.

Three minutes before the checkered flag, the Thai skidded into the first corner, crashing into the barriers on the left. The Williams driver broke the suspension on both wheels and stopped in the middle of the lane. The impact was so severe that the FIA ​​immediately sent a medical car to Albon. In addition, a decision was made to end the first training session prematurely.

Behind Sainz and Alonso, Lewis Hamilton finished third, Sergio Perez fourth, Charles Leclerc fifth, Max Verstappen sixth, Lando Norris seventh, Esteban Ocon eighth, Lance Stroll ninth and Alexander Albon tenth.

Weather at the end of the period:
Track temperature: 49°C
Air temperature: 27°C
Wind speed: 1.5 m / s
Air humidity: 35%
dry