Leclerc tops second F1 Monaco GP practice leading a Ferrari one-two

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc topped the second practice session in Monaco, leading a Ferrari one-two with his teammate Carlos Sainz second.

The weather conditions were identical to the morning, with bright sunshine and blue skies greeting the drivers. Ferrari's Sainz continued his fine form from the morning session setting one of the fastest times of the session on the medium compound tyres and going four tenths quicker than McLaren's Lando Norris.

Traffic proved to be one of the recurring issues of the sessions, a warning for what could transpire for Q1 on Saturday, with Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc facing the brunt of the issues early on.

As the session progressed the Mercedes and Red Bull cars began trading purple sectors with Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez all topping the time sheets at different points, with Verstappen and Hamilton setting the exact same laptime at one point. The English driver eventually managed to stamp his authority on the session setting a laptime of 1.12.569 on the medium tyres. Verstappen improved to a 1.12.801 briefly putting him second until Sainz seperated the championship leaders setting a time .180 off the seven-time world champion, the Spainiard making the most of his hard compund tyres.

An interesting development as the session progressed was a drop in air tempreture with drivers sliding around the streets of Monte Carlo, Leclerc was one of the first victims of the condition change before AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda tapped the wall putting him out for the remainder of the session.

Things fell into a bit of a lull as the 20 minute mark went by before Nicholas Latifi misjudged the hairpin, F1's slowest corner, though unlike Tsunoda he was able to avoid the barriers. Valtteri Bottas then went quickest with the Finn setting a laptime of 1.12.107 on the soft compound tyre. Hamilton who followed him had a big moment at the chicane coming out the tunnel going over the suasage kerb and ruining his second sector which left him a tenth behind his teammate.

The halfway mark of the session brought a suprise along it with Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi going third quickest six tenths behind Bottas. Sainz then regaind the top spot with a time of 1.11.796, the first driver to break into the 11 second barrier.

Both Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly continued their good form from the morning session with Gasly going seventh and Vettel tenth. McLaren driver Norris was the next driver to tempt fate as the McLaren driver had to cut the corner around the swimming pool complex in order to avoid losing control. Monegasque driver Leclerc finally saw some good fortune at his home race with the Ferrari man pipping his teammate by a tenth to top the time sheets giving the Italian team a one-two.

The final 20 minutes of the session saw the drivers complete their race runs, meaning the Ferrari pair maintained their advantage. The final classification for the top ten read Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton, Verstappen, Bottas, Norris, Gasly, Perez, Giovinazzi and Vettel.

Other talking points were Daniel Ricciardo's continued struggles with the Australian finishing the session in 15th and the session coming to a premature end with Mich Schumacher's Haas bringing out the red flags with just over four minutes to go.