Where Charles Leclerc crushed rivals to hand Ferrari massive Monaco boost

If you've read or listened to anything Charles Leclerc has said regarding Ferrari's chances into the Monaco Grand Prix, you'd be extremely surprised to see him comfortably complete the Friday practice double.

He has been telling the world that Ferrari's low-speed performance problems would all but rule the team out of contention, but on Friday in the Principality, the SF-25 looked the car to beat, with Leclerc first and Lewis Hamilton in third.

It is the first time all season that Ferrari has had two cars inside the top three in a session and bodes well going into perhaps the most important qualifying session of the year. 

Ferrari's typical strength in 2025 has been race pace, as seen by Hamilton's charge to fourth at Imola, and Leclerc's strong drive to third in Saudi Arabia, where his clean air pace caught the attention of McLaren and Red Bull. Its problems lie in qualifying, where it is having to trade single lap pace for an increased ride height to prevent the type of plank wear which led to Hamilton's China result being expunged.

The data appears to back this up with only a mighty effort from Leclerc getting him ahead.

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As can be seen below in the track dominance of the FP2 qualifying simulations, Leclerc was monstrous through Sainte Devote and on the climb up Beau Rivage to Massanet and Casino Square.

Here, he was 0.080s faster than second-placed Oscar Piastri, and two-and-a-half faster than Max Verstappen, who was actually quickest through Massanet, but Leclerc's extraordinary speed through Sainte Devote is key. 

He carried more speed into the corner than Piastri, broke later and got on the throttle earlier, with the McLaren about level-pegging with the Red Bull. 

Further around the lap, Leclerc's warnings about Ferrafri being slow in the low-speed rings true as Piastri dominated at the Lowes hairpin and the Nouvelle chicane. 

But through the flick of Tabac and dance of Anthony Noghes, that Ferrari was on top. It was enough to pip Piastri by 0.038s to top the session.

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Race pace data

As for race pace analysis, Leclerc looks to have a decisive advantage over the chasing pack. 

His long run was completed on the hard tyres, the C4, which is actually last season's medium tyre, with the C5 medium this term being last year's soft, following the introduction of the new C6.

His average pace was 1:14.161s and was largely consistent through the run, although it was the more durable tyre.

Hamilton's medium run yielded a 1:14.807 average, with Verstappen even further behind on a 1:14.914 as he battled understeer in the RB21.

With the two-stop race mandated, for the first time in a while, strategy will actually be key in Monaco, but as ever, race pace is not the important factor. It is all about qualifying, but Leclerc appears to have the barest of margins in his favour.