Monaco, FP2: Mercedes open the gap in second practice

Mercedes powered away from its rivals in second practice for the Monaco Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton setting a time of 1:11.118 to top the timesheet 0.081s ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas. The Silver Arrows’ closes rival in the session was Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who finished more than seventh tenths of a second behind Hamilton.

Hamilton and Bottas set the early pace in the session, using medium compound Pirelli tyres, but were dislodged when Vettel bolted on a set of softs for his performance runs.

The German was only four hundredths of a second quicker than Hamilton’s medium-tyre benchmark and when the Mercedes duo move to the soft compound they swiftly regained the upper hand. First, Bottas took top spot with an opening run of 1:11.597. He and Hamilton then traded times until the championship leader eventually moved a narrow eight hundredths of a second clear with a lap Bottas had no answer to. Hamilton’s time left Vettel 0.763s down.

After seeing team-mate Max Verstappen run more a second clear of his best time in FP1, Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly has a much better afternoon session and took fourth place, less than a tenth behind Vettel. Verstappen fared less well and spent a large part of the session in the garage as his team investigated a suspected water leak. He ended up in P6 after rejoining the action late in the session.

It was a good outing for Toro Rosso driver Alex Albon, too. The Thai driver, who was on pole for the F2 feature race here last year, took fifth place in the second session of his first F1 weekend in Monaco with a lap of 1:12.031.

Kevin Magnussen was seventh Haas, ahead of the Alfa Romeos of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen.

The top ten order was rounded out Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque driver ended the 90 minutes some 1.2s off the pace after complaining of brake issues during the session.