Verstappen edges both Ferraris in Monaco FP2 as Sainz crashes out

Max Verstappen topped the Monaco Formula 1 free practice session by the slimmest of margins ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

The Red Bull driver, who was frustrated by handling issues in FP1, fought back to the front of the field with a benchmark of 1:12.462, with little over one tenth of a second covering the top three.

Home favourite Charles Leclerc had struggled to live with the pace of his teammate Carlos Sainz in the early stages, but fought back in the qualifying simulations to finish 0.065s behind Verstappen.

His Ferrari teammate was just 0.042s behind but, with 15 minutes of the session remaining, Sainz denied himself one final chance to top FP2 by tagging the barrier at the Swimming Pool section.

Clipping the wall on the inside of the right-hand Turn 15, the steering arm of the SF-23 was broken, and Sainz was powerless to prevent the car being directed into the wall on the exit of Turn 16.

Fernando Alonso placed his Aston Martin in P4 and within striking distance of the pace-setters, whilst Lando Norris was a surprise P5 for McLaren.

Despite the apparent success for the Briton, his session started late and finished early, with his McLaren being brought back into the pits with technical gremlins.

Lewis Hamilton declared that there was 'no more pace' in the car after his P6 effort, just ahead of the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who will be disappointed to be several places down on Verstappen.

Valtteri Bottas gave Alfa Romeo hope of an improved race performance with a P8 result, ahead of the two Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.

Aston Martin's Lance Stroll and Mercedes' George Russell both struggled to live with the pace of their teammates, finishing down in P11 and P12.

In what was a relatively clean session, Yuki Tsunoda tagged the wall at the Nouvelle Chicane to inflict minor damage on his AlphaTauri in the second half of the session.

Williams' Alex Albon managed to return to the track for FP2, following his session-ending crash in FP1, but only joined the action with 11 minutes to go.