Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Monaco, 2021

Leclerc leads Ferrari one-two in second practice

2021 Monaco Grand Prix second practice

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Charles Leclerc was quickest in the second practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix, which came to an early end after Mick Schumacher crashed.

Ferrari had looked strong this morning, despite Leclerc completing just four laps due to gearbox trouble, with Carlos Sainz Jnr splitting the Red Bulls at the top of the times. They continued that run in the afternoon, with Sainz consistently at the top of the times and both their cars the only ones to dip below 1’12.

Mercedes, who had not gone on soft tyre runs this morning, seemed more competitive in the afternoon session. Hamilton was the closest to Ferrari’s times, albeit nearly four-tenths back from Leclerc’s best. Bottas was less than a tenth away from him to be fifth fastest, in what was quite a close top 10.

Verstappen, who also encountered gearbox trouble at the end of the morning’s running, was just seven-thousandths off Hamilton’s time, in fourth.

Lando Norris finished the session sixth-fastest, the McLaren cars having been very close during first practice. This afternoon, however, he was well ahead of Daniel Ricciardo who struggled in 15th, debriefing with his engineers mid-session about where to find more time compared to Norris.

Perez, who bested Verstappen in first practice, seemed to encounter the worst of the traffic this afternoon. He nearly collided with Schumacher at one point early on in the session and was only able to set a 1’12.708 for ninth-fastest. Pierre Gasly, who also had a strong morning session, putting his AlphaTauri two-tenths ahead in eighth place, on a soft tyre run.

Sebastian Vettel at one point complained that it felt like his eyes were bleeding, due to something in his eye. Despite that, he was 10th fastest and beat team mate Stroll by two tenths.

Monaco newcomer Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver other than Schumacher to suffer a major incident. He knocked the rear of his AlphaTauri after just 11 laps, ending his running for the session.

Schumacher’s incident, in the final ten minutes of the session, brought the red flags out and crucially scuppered his rivals’ hopes of doing any practice starts. He lost control of his Haas on the way into Massenet, thumping the barrier leaving him with a right-rear puncture and, according to his radio message, broken the rear suspension.

He attempted to drive his Haas back to the pits at first, then pulled to a stop in the escape road at the Nouvelle chicane. The session was red-flagged with less than four minutes remaining and was not restarted.

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2021 Monaco Grand Prix second practice result

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
116Charles LeclercFerrari1’11.68427
255Carlos Sainz JnrFerrari1’11.7960.11225
344Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’12.0740.39022
433Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’12.0810.39721
577Valtteri BottasMercedes1’12.1070.42325
64Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes1’12.3790.69519
710Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Honda1’12.4980.81422
811Sergio PerezRed Bull-Honda1’12.7081.02420
999Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’12.7461.06222
105Sebastian VettelAston Martin-Mercedes1’12.9821.29820
117Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’13.0651.38124
1214Fernando AlonsoAlpine-Renault1’13.1751.49120
1318Lance StrollAston Martin-Mercedes1’13.1951.51120
1431Esteban OconAlpine-Renault1’13.1991.51521
153Daniel RicciardoMcLaren-Mercedes1’13.2571.57323
1663George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’13.5091.82525
176Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes1’13.5931.90924
189Nikita MazepinHaas-Ferrari1’14.4072.72320
1947Mick SchumacherHaas-Ferrari1’14.4162.73220
2022Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Honda1’14.8293.14511

Second practice visual gaps

Charles Leclerc – 1’11.684

+0.112 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’11.796

+0.390 Lewis Hamilton – 1’12.074

+0.397 Max Verstappen – 1’12.081

+0.423 Valtteri Bottas – 1’12.107

+0.695 Lando Norris – 1’12.379

+0.814 Pierre Gasly – 1’12.498

+1.024 Sergio Perez – 1’12.708

+1.062 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’12.746

+1.298 Sebastian Vettel – 1’12.982

+1.381 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’13.065

+1.491 Fernando Alonso – 1’13.175

+1.511 Lance Stroll – 1’13.195

+1.515 Esteban Ocon – 1’13.199

+1.573 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’13.257

+1.825 George Russell – 1’13.509

+1.909 Nicholas Latifi – 1’13.593

+2.723 Nikita Mazepin – 1’14.407

+2.732 Mick Schumacher – 1’14.416

+3.145 Yuki Tsunoda – 1’14.829

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

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2021 Monaco Grand Prix

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Author information

Hazel Southwell
Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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49 comments on “Leclerc leads Ferrari one-two in second practice”

  1. Ferrari has entered the chat.

    1. Nobody invited them to the party. This is Red Bull and Mercedes chat only LOL.

      In all seriousness, their pace appears to be legit. But again, with the exception of Bahrain, putting a clean lap in qualifying is the name of the game this season, or doing less mistakes.

      1. @krichelle It could also have something to do with fuel loads, I don’t expect them to qualify P1 and P2, but the pace seems fairly legit.

      2. @krichelle

        Given the qualifying form of both Leclerc and Sainz this season, it’s really likely they could pull off a surprise this weekend.

  2. How did this happen?

    1. Barry Bens (@barryfromdownunder)
      20th May 2021, 15:07

      I would say that they finally found their way around their car again. Then again, seeing as it’s Ferrari, I wouldn’t think twice if it turns out they’ve been fiddling with their engines again.

      1. yeah sure they are cheating

      2. Engines at monaco?

      3. Bending wings, again ? Oh no wait, that’s RB chea! Sorry mixing stuff here…

    2. Almost certainly they are doing quite solidly. But very likely also on a somewhat lower fuel load @pinakghosh. Not the first time we see Ferrari being really good on friday (well, Thursday since it is Monaco) but then the Mercedes and off course now the Red Bulls too, being firmly ahead again.

      It does bode well though for Ferrari to get their cars into the second/3rd rows of the grid, which would give them a leg up in the fight for “best of the rest”

      1. Yeah…it seems low fuel run. It was encouraging to see the lap Leclerc lap on few laps used softs.
        But there is definitely a sub 12 lap in Merc and RBR.

      2. “Not the first time we see Ferrari being really good on friday (well, Thursday since it is Monaco”…. Yeh but not 1-2 fastest. When was the last time Ferrari were are the top of the charts in free practise? Back when they were potential race winners is the answer.

        1. Indeed!

    3. pastaman (@)
      20th May 2021, 15:10

      It’s free practice

      1. Yes, it is and I don’t expect them in taht position comes Saturday afternoon… But… But, what a turnover compared to last year. Let’s at least recognised the great job done by the team ; no one would have bet on that 2 mints ago…

    4. Seemed like Ferrari turned on the softs better than any other team. Mercedes didn’t look as comfortable on the softs as they did on the mediums, and Red bull didn’t seem to improve as much as expected either. Maybe it’s something to do with the track temperatures. If the same conditions are present during Q3 tomorrow, it should be an interesting session.

      If I had to guess, I’d say both the Ferraris will qualify in the top 5. Maybe on row 2.

      1. @todfod
        They seem to be quick on every type of tyre. Sainz was 2nd quickest on Mediums in FP1 (0.12 behind 1st place) and also during the first half of FP2 on Hards (0.18 behind 1st).
        Let’s hope they can get in the mix with RB & Mercedes in qualifying.

    5. The car is good in low speed corners and is not disadvantaged by their weaker PU in Monaco, as power and straight line speed aren’t important there.

    6. Glory runs – probably less fuel than Mercedes and Red Bull.

      I’ll be amazed, but will say “Well done!”, if they’re P1 & P2 after qualifying. I can’t see them getting higher than P4 if we accept that Perez won’t trouble the front two rows.

      1. Yes I have a hunch the Reds are chasing headlines, esp for the fashion show tomorrow.
        Can Norris get a podium? That’s what I’m wondering.

    7. It’s a very good car with a poor engine compared to Mercedes and Honda. At Monaco engine performance won’t show up as much.

      1. Indeed, ferrari chassis seems good this year.

        1. I may be wrong, but I think they have the 3rd best chassis on the grid. Last year too, just that they raced a 2015 Honda engine.

  3. The biggest dissapointment of the weekend is McLaren’s livery. It looked fantastic in preview pictures but the colors are too pale on track.

    1. the livery is great!

    2. Looks the same on track to me.

    3. So press guys have done their job well then.

    4. Likewise. The blue is too pale. The bright sunlight almost made it look orange and white to me.

  4. This is promising for the Ferrari fans. Leclerc and Sainz so close, best driver duo atm.

    And why is Yuko so slow? Lack of confidence?

    1. He hit the wall quite early in the session and stayed in for repairs (possibly gearbox?) after that, so never got to set a competitive laptime @ruben

      1. @ruben They also mentioned that this is his first time at Monaco in a racecar, I’m guessing Monaco takes a while getting used to.

  5. Friday. Practice

    1. But it is Monaco, they are practising for qualifying. Very good from Ferrari so far, reminds me of Kubica in 2010 Monaco last time a non predicted fast car was doing lap after lap near the top in Monaco.

    2. Thursday more like!

  6. Anyone can give an insight on what tyres were used by the top 5 for those times?

    1. Black round Pirelllis.

      1. oh good, i thought Ferrari were the only ones. Thought perhaps the rest of the field used square tyres…………….

        1. @arigold Ah yes, the good old South Park Canadian tire :)

      2. No need to be an …

    2. @arigold All on the softs.

  7. Ferrari definitely won’t qualify 1-2.

    1. What matters is competitiveness, I’d say a ferrari on the 2nd row is a success.

  8. In 2019 pole time was 1.10.1 so there is still room for improvement. I doubt that time will be beaten in these cars. Looking at these times Ferrari has a real change to be 5th and 6th or even better.

  9. Shumi is the new Mazepin. LOL

  10. with less than four minutes remaining

    pretty confident it was more than nine

  11. About time for Fezza to win a race, can this be the one? Can Carlos Sainz Jr. break his duck?

  12. This is getting really old. Same old. Same old. I hope Ferrari’s pace is legit but I fear that Mercedes will turn their wonder engine up again that they and only they have the power to do. How many more years of this? Imagine the celebration when finally another team wins the championship. It’s going to be great when everyone is dancing in the street. From next year the advantage for Mercedes will be even more obvious. Enjoy. So 2025 for a chance in hell it will be. Where one team again will have an engine advantage and round and round we go. Will it be AMG then? Good time to change the teams name. That way it will appear as if we have a new winner but no. Same old same old.

    1. Harry (@harrydymond)
      21st May 2021, 8:13

      @stash “one team again will have an engine advantage”. What’s in the back of the McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams then?

      Mercedes advantage is not down to their power unit. If it was, the front of the grid would be consistently filled by the above teams. Obviously it’s not the worst power unit, but Mercedes’ dominance is down to the whole package – they have the best chassis, team, and driver.

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