#F1 #MonacoGP FP1: @LewisHamilton pips @OscarPiastri by 0.029s, @Max33Verstappen 11th.

Hamilton Monaco GP FP1 – Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton pipped McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in opening practice at the Monaco GP as the former’s Mercedes team-mate completed the top three. Championship leader Max Verstappen was down in 11^th.

Hamilton posted the session-topping benchmark of a 1:12.169 on the C5 red side-walled softer compounds and was a slim 0.029 seconds clear of Piastri as Russell was a further 0.126 off his team-mate in third.

Hamilton’s tour was succeeded by a red flag from debris produced by Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu, who survived a brushed with the wall at St. Devote despite losing fragments from his front wing.

Continuous laps of the Monte Carlo streets defined the opening 20 minutes of proceedings as the drivers were building their confidence around the famous Monaco circuit, with majority of the pack touring on the C3 white-marked harder compounds.

The times began to tumble rapidly; Piastri was on top of the pile after the opening set of timed laps setting a 1:18.002 on a set of the C4 yellow-branded medium rubber, but the streets of Monaco soon rubbered in, and the seconds began to drop.

After 15 minutes of proceedings, Verstappen lowered the benchmark down to 1:13.974 – also on the mediums.

McLaren’s Lando Norris then jumped to the top of the time-sheets on his set of the hards, going 0.04 seconds quicker than Verstappen, before Ferrari made their mark with Charles Leclerc – the local favourite hit a 1:13.343 on Pirelli’s hardest compound available for the weekend to take P1.

The Ferrari driver continued to find time, getting down to a 1:13.132, closing out the top of the times on his hard tyre stint, before Piastri reclaimed top spot with a 1:12.618 on the C5 softs.

Mercedes’ Russell then ousted the Australian posting a 1:12.295 and was joined in the top two positions on the timing board with team-mate Hamilton, before Piastri found more gains and on his next tour grabbing a 1:12.198.

Hamilton then took the session-topping benchmark with his 1:12.169 effort before the red flag was waved due to scattered debris from Zhou’s Sauber – after the Chinese driver went a touch wayward at St. Devote and knocked off his front wing, and the end-plate became stuck underneath Leclerc’s SF-24 racer.

The debris was quickly cleared, and ten minutes were left on the clock when the session went back to green running, but there were no improvements to Hamilton’s overall time-topper.

Norris and Leclerc were separated by a very narrow 0.001 seconds behind Russell in fourth and fifth respectively as Aston Martin duo Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were next in seventh and eighth.

RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo were eighth and ninth respectively as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz completed the top ten.

Championship leader Verstappen and his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez came 11^th and 12^th in the classification as Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas followed in 13^th.

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg placed 14^th and 16^th respectively as Williams’ Alexander Albon split the pairing in 15^th and his team-mate Logan Sargeant was behind Hulkenberg in 17^th.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly ended opening practice in 18^th and at the rear as the aforementioned Zhou split the duo in 19th.

Gasly only completed ten laps and suffered a wastegate issue missing out on the majority of the session.

You can see the full Formula 1 Grand Prix De Monaco 2024 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2024/races/1236/monaco/practice-1.html

2024 F1 World Championship Standings

#F1 Grand Prix De Monaco 2024 Preview. #Formula1 #MonacoGrandPrix