#MonacoGP FP1 report: @SChecoPerez leads from @Carlossainz55. #F1

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was quickest in the opening FP1 session at the Monaco GP ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and team-mate Max Verstappen.

Williams Racing’s George Russell was the first driver to hit the streets of Monte Carlo, which traditionally runs both FP1 and FP2 on Thursday.

Sainz was the first to post a reasonable effort on a 1:16.241 on the yellow side-walled C4 medium compounds.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton rapidly beat Sainz’s time with a 1:15.858, before the latter responded with a 1:14.457 in his SF21 racer.

The Spaniard’s Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc returned to the garage after the first ten minutes due to a gearbox problem, preventing the home-town favourite from enjoying his initial session on the Circuit De Monaco.

Sainz improved further to a 1:13.639 then a 1:13.388 on the yellow-marked C4 medium rubber, leading at the first quarter from Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, and Verstappen.

Mercedes kept eating into Sainz’s benchmark, with Bottas claiming second posting a 1:13.372 before Hamilton claimed top spot by 0.016 seconds.

Red Bull’s Verstappen also got into the mix, splitting the Mercedes duo just before the halfway point.

Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso was the first driver to bring out the yellow flags, damaging his front wing after suffering from understeer and running into the barriers at the exit of La Rascasse. The two-time World Champion was able to change his front wing and continue on.

After the short deployment of the Virtual Safety Car, Verstappen moved to the top of the time-sheets with a 1:13.191 on the C3 white-branded hards.

Mercedes responded with both Bottas and Hamilton immediately going faster. Hamilton took P1 with a 1:12.995 on the mediums, with the Briton the first driver to go under the 1:13’s bracket.

Hamilton’s effort on top was brief, as Sainz snatched top spot posting a 1:12.965 before an impressive lap from AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly moved from fourth to first with a 1:12.929 – the Frenchman running the C5 red side-walled softer compounds.

Sainz was the second driver to scrape the barriers running out of the swimming pool chicane, but the Spaniard appeared to escape damage.

With 15 minutes remaining, Verstappen took P1 with a 1:12.648 on the medium rubber, with soft-tyre running team-mate Perez following the Dutchman into second spot with a 1:12.817.

In the closing stages, Perez moved ahead of his Red Bull team-mate taking the top of the time-sheets with a 1:12.536 then a 1:12.487. Sainz also leapfrogged Verstappen to take second with a 1:12.606 on the mediums.

Verstappen who was battling with Sainz to find clean air for his last hot-lap, settled for third place, with Gasly in fourth, along with Hamilton and Bottas taking fifth and sixth respectively.

Lando Norris was seventh in his McLaren MCL35M, which carries the legendary Gulf Oil livery this weekend and 0.749 seconds adrift of Perez’s Monaco GP FP1 benchmark with Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel took an encouraging eighth place.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda ended opening practice in ninth place on his first ever outing on the streets of the iconic principality, followed by Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen who completed the top ten.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was 11th and in-front of Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi who took 12th and Alonso who finished 13th.

Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi followed in 14th place and ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo who ended FP1 in a low 15th and Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon who was 16th.

Uralkali Haas F1 Team pairing Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher were 17th and 18th respectively, in-front of Russell and the aforementioned Leclerc.

You can read the full Formula 1 Grand Prix De Monaco 2021 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1067/monaco/practice-1.html

#Formula1 Grand Prix De Monaco 2021 Preview. #F1 #MonacoGP