Hamilton and Piastri fly through Monaco streets
Australia’s Oscar Piastri is off to a fast start in the 70th Monaco Grand Prix by being a close second to Lewis Hamilton in opening practice.
Hamilton put a tough time in his Mercedes behind him by posting the fastest time of a 1:12.169 moments before a red flag caused by Zhou Guanyu debris.
Just 0.029s behind was Piastri, who threw the Senna inspired around the tight streets of Monte Carlo to edge ahead of George Russell and Lando Norris.
Local boy Charles Leclerc was the only non Mercedes powered driver in the top five that was covered by just 0.228s.
Sensationally there was no Red Bull in the top 10 with Max Verstappen only managing 11th, eight tenths off pace as he believed his RB21 was “on a knife’s edge.”
Daniel Ricciardo in his first drive in Monaco since 2022 was ninth fastest, 0.732s away from the #44 and 0.026s and one position away from Racing Bulls teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
Piastri wasted no time, being the fastest in the opening set of runs with a 1:18.002 on the mediums, but the streets soon rubbered up.
Verstappen, Norris and Leclerc all took turns at the top on the harder compound before Piastri fired a 1:12.618 on the softs.
Both Mercedes managed to beat the Aussie before the #81 found more time to lower the benchmark to go back to P1.
Piastri was knocked off by Hamilton moments before the red for Zhou with 10 minutes left.
Although there were 10 minutes left and the session did resume, there were no further improvements on the leaderboard.
Saint Devote had been a hot spot throughout the session with Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas and Alex Albon all going off.
But what brought out the red was Zhou, who made the corner, but whacked the wall on corner exit, leaving a trail of debris.
After the unlucky Leclerc ran over the carbon fibre, the red flag was required.
Pierre Gasly was last having suffered power unit issues.
Attention turns to FP2 where drivers will continue to dial in around the iconic streets of the Principality.
Photo by Andy Hone / LAT Images)
2024 Monaco Grand Prix Free Practice 1 results
| POS | DRIVER | TIME | GAP | LAPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:12.169 | 35 | ||
| 2 | 1:12.198 | +0.029s | 31 | |
| 3 | 1:12.295 | +0.126s | 35 | |
| 4 | 1:12.396 | +0.227s | 33 | |
| 5 | 1:12.397 | +0.228s | 33 | |
| 6 | 1:12.775 | +0.606s | 26 | |
| 7 | 1:12.789 | +0.620s | 26 | |
| 8 | 1:12.875 | +0.706s | 34 | |
| 9 | 1:12.901 | +0.732s | 36 | |
| 10 | 1:12.954 | +0.785s | 35 | |
| 11 | 1:12.984 | +0.815s | 29 | |
| 12 | 1:13.229 | +1.060s | 29 | |
| 13 | 1:13.248 | +1.079s | 28 | |
| 14 | 1:13.390 | +1.221s | 33 | |
| 15 | 1:13.425 | +1.256s | 34 | |
| 16 | 1:13.576 | +1.407s | 34 | |
| 17 | 1:14.150 | +1.981s | 36 | |
| 18 | 1:14.159 | +1.990s | 33 | |
| 19 | 1:14.570 | +2.401s | 30 | |
| 20 | 1:15.574 | +3.405s | 10 |
2024 Monaco Grand Prix Schedule:
Friday, May 24th:
FP1: 21:30 – 22:30
Saturday, May 25th:
FP2: 01:00 – 02:00
FP3: 20:30 – 21:30
Sunday, May 26th:
Qualifying: 00:00 – 01:00
Race: 23:00
Image: Zak Mauger / LAT Images
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