Sainz crashes, Verstappen fastest – all the Monaco FP2 details

Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen topped the second Monaco Grand Prix practice session ahead of the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, whose crash brought out a red flag in the final 20 minutes of the session.

Key moments:

> Late red flag as Sainz hits Swimming Pool chicane wall

> Verstappen hits the front but Ferraris close behind

> Top 14 covered by one second

> Red flag limits Albon to 11 minutes on track

Sainz spent a great deal of the session at the head of the order and looked just as dialled in as he had in Friday’s earlier FP1 session, which he headed from Fernando Alonso.

The Ferrari was an impressive third fastest on hard tyres at the start of the session while most others were on mediums, then hit the front when switching to softs with a time of 1m2.569s.

But Sainz crashed inside the final third of the hour-long session when he hit the inside wall at the Swimming Pool chicane, sending him into the right-hand wall on the exit of the corner.

That brought out the red flags, though the session resumed with 12 minutes remaining on the clock – allowing teams to at least conduct some long-run simulation running.

Sainz ultimately ended up third in the order having been usurped by Verstappen and Leclerc prior to his shunt.

Verstappen’s session-best time, a 1m12.462s, put him a mere 0.065 seconds ahead of Leclerc though with Sainz also just 0.107s off.

Alonso was fourth and within a quarter of a second of the pace too in his Aston Martin. He ended the session half a second up on team-mate Lance Stroll, who was outside the top 10.

Lando Norris put his McLaren an excellent fifth but was asked to abort his final run once the session resumed to abort his lap and minimise his throttle use on his way back to the pits. Norris, who’d earlier been delayed from starting his running while McLaren worked on the front end of his car, did not return to the track.

The best of the upgraded Mercedes was sixth in the hands of Lewis Hamilton, who again had a margin over team-mate George Russell – he was 12th in the second W14 behind Stroll.

But that appeared the extent of Mercedes’ speed compared to the frontrunners – Hamilton saying when fed back his sector-time deficits “damn, [the] car won’t go much quicker”.

Defending Monaco GP winner Sergio Perez was only seventh and more than half a second off his pacesetting Red Bull team-mate Verstappen, with Valtteri Bottas an impressive eighth for an Alfa Romeo team that chose to debut its Monaco upgrades in FP2.

The top 10 was completed by the Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, while the top 14 in the order ended up separated by less than a second – Kevin Magnussen’s Haas was the last of those cars.

Williams was forced to change the gearbox, front and rear wings, and front and rear suspension on Alex Albon’s FW45 in order to give him some track time following his crash at the end of FP1.

It did repair his car in time for the end of the session but Albon was limited to 11 minutes on track by Sainz’s crash, and ended up with the 19th-fastest time ahead only of team-mate Logan Sargeant.

Practice 2 Results