Lewis Hamilton capped off a perfect Friday at the Monaco Grand Prix for Ferrari by leading another 1-2 in second practice, while Lando Norris suffered an early exit.
The seven-time world champion set a 1m13.026s which was 0.111s quicker than team-mate Charles Leclerc, who led Hamilton in a 1-2 for Ferrari during first practice at the principality.
It means the Italian outfit is the team to beat this weekend thanks to its strength in slow-speed corners, hoping to end Mercedes’ perfect start to the 2026 campaign.
The Silver Arrows has won all five grands prix this year, the last two coming on sprint weekends, so FP2 has become a novelty at this point with Monaco being the first to host it since Japan in March.
A busy start was therefore no surprise and it saw all teams bar Aston Martin use new mediums, softs for the Silverstone outfit, with the early lead changing hands multiple times.
That was before Norris suffered an unspecified problem 12 minutes in, sending his McLaren down the Nouvelle Chicane escape road and into an early retirement for the world champion.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
It caused a virtual safety car that ended 20 minutes into the session and Leclerc then very quickly went top with a 1m13.613s, 0.365s faster than his FP1 benchmark.
So by this point Ferrari was the only team sub 1m14s, Hamilton having set a 1m13.671s right before Norris’ retirement, but then FP2 ramped up halfway into the one-hour outing.
That’s when teams started fitting the soft tyre and although championship leader Kimi Antonelli couldn’t topple Leclerc at first, Max Verstappen did with a 1m13.467s in his Red Bull.
Next to jump ahead of the Ferrari duo was George Russell with a 1m13.515s, so the Italian outfit built its way into the soft-tyre window rather than showing its hand straight away.
Verstappen therefore stretched his advantage with a 1m13.194s, before Ferrari finally set hot laps on soft rubber: Leclerc did a 1m13.137s, before a 1m13.026s for Hamilton.
Those lap times subsequently went unbeaten across the final 22 minutes, as some teams returned to the medium tyre to switch to long run programmes before a late red flag caused by Sergio Perez’s smoky Cadillac which stopped at Casino Square.
It meant Verstappen remained third with his 1m13.194s ahead of fourth-placed Russell, whose Mercedes team-mate Antonelli took fifth and was 0.503s behind Hamilton.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Joe Portlock / Getty Images
Sixth went to Isack Hadjar, who had a late start to FP2 after his FP1 crash but the Red Bull driver recovered positively to end up with a 1m14.087s, 0.001s ahead of Oscar Piastri’s McLaren.
Nico Hulkenberg took eighth with a 1m14.094s, 0.265s ahead of Audi team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto in ninth with Haas driver Oliver Bearman completing the top 10 on a 1m14.456s.
F1 Monaco GP – FP2 results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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