Alonso and Sainz inform Verstappen, who leads Free Practice 2

Max Verstappen led the first day of free practice for the Monaco F1 GP. At first glance, it might seem like just another weekend at the champion’s office. But this time, things could be very different. In other layouts, Max know that he has a pole car in an even fight with Ferrari and in the race, his single-seater was infinitely superior to the winner. But in the Principality, the Dutch have to sweat more in search of glory. After what was seen on the first day of free practice, if anything is clear, it is at the party for pole position this Saturday (4:00 pm / DAZN F1), something that Monaco is synonymous with more than half a win, the Aston Martin of a very plugged-in Fernando Alonso, who will give everything in search of his victory 33. Furthermore, that Carlos Sainz He should be a good candidate to earn the first starting position this Saturday. Two Spaniards out of 6 applicants, with ‘Checo’ Perez more lost than normal starting with a street circuit and on Verstappen as a favorite, but with very little, very little.

That is what is pure from a second free training session where Max Verstappen leads by 0″065 over Leclerc, with Sainz 3rd by 0″107 and Alonso 4th by 0″220. The times are deceiving, as they almost always are. Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso were the great dominators at the start, showing themselves to be very comfortable and fast all the time in the leading positions. Carlos passed Alonso in a good first attempt on the soft rubber and Leclerc failed to improve the time. It was the perfect moment for the Red Bulls to come out on track to give the first performance comparison a lap on soft rubber, but the Milton Keynes team decided to come out 10 minutes later, with the track in better condition and faster.

This is how Verstappen, after several attempts, managed to overcome Sainz and Alonso. And later, Leclerc, who seemed to have lost more than Carlos, far from his times, finally found a good time in better track conditions to beat his teammate Carlos by just 0.52 thousandths.

The last accident prevented Sainz from closing out a round day

For this reason, the reading to be done by the time table is very positive for the interest of Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso. Only one fact marred the Madrid native’s near-dream start this weekend in Monaco.

With 16 minutes left in the day, the Spaniard made his only mistake of the day by sticking too close to the inside wall at the entrance to the pool chicane. He had already handled it in Free Practice 1, and in the afternoon he could not avoid it. He broke the right front tire and went into the guards. Now, Carlos will need to regain the confidence that is so important on this track in Free Practice 3 this Saturday to attack and go all out in qualifying with an eye on pole position.

gg.didomi.doWhenConsent(!window.didomiBypass, ‘c:twitterwi-wUmBnnKy’, function () {
var x = document.createElement(‘script’);
x.setAttribute(“type”,”text/javascript”);
x.setAttribute(“src”, “//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”);
x.setAttribute(“charset”, “utf-8”);
$(“.twitter-tweet”).closest( “span” ).append(x);
});

Are the Spaniards among the contenders for pole position?

This Saturday, Carlos Sainz wants to achieve the pole position he was unable to fight for last year when ‘qualification’ stopped in the last moments due to an accident by Pérez. This year, these incidents will be investigated carefully to avoid suspicion. Sainz wants first place and to achieve a victory in Monaco which last year was close (he was 2nd). And Alonso will also be looking for pole position to get closer to 33. Max Verstappen will try to avoid it, as will Leclerc who should always be a home candidate. The fight for a post-flavored victory looks exciting. There are 2 Spaniards out of 5 good applicants.

The main question is whether Mercedes, which debuted a half-new car in Monaco, can fight for the first places immediately with its new package. Right now, Hamilton is 6th at 0″498 and Russell, 12th at 0″729. Saturday is always improving and an important step forward is expected. Meanwhile, in the middle zone, Norris surprised 5th place in a McLaren with many new features. Bottas (8th), Gasly (9th) and Ocon (10) are the Top-10.