Wednesday, 23 Jul, 2025
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Hamilton surprises with “strong” Ferrari F1 pace in Monaco


Hamilton surprised by "really strong" Ferrari pace in Monaco

After Carlos Sainz finished second in FP1, Ferrari continued his impressive early form in Monaco that afternoon when Charles Leclerc put the team down 2-1.

Leclerc set a fastest lap time of 1: 11.684 seconds to bring Sainz to the front by a tenth of a second. Mercedes rival and championship leader Hamilton stayed in third place, three tenths of a second behind the pace.

The result came as a surprise after Mercedes and Red Bull dominated the early part of the season and seemed out of reach for the midfielders. Hamilton was optimistic after Thursday’s practice in Monaco when F1 returned to the principality for the first time in two years, but noted Ferrari’s impressive performance.

“In general, it just feels cool to be back on track,” said Hamilton. “It’s fast, this track is absolutely fascinating every time you get the chance to drive. So yeah, I generally enjoyed it today. It’s a challenge, of course.

“I think the Ferraris are really strong, surprising to see them improving so much, but that’s great. That means more competition.”

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When asked if he believed Ferrari’s pace was real, Hamilton replied, “I see what you see. I generally just focus on my job. It looks like this. We’ll see.”

The result was Ferrari’s first 2-1 in an F1 session since the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix, when Sebastian Vettel led Leclerc in the second practice session in Interlagos.

Ferrari slumped to its worst championship finish in 40 years after experiencing a severe loss of form last season, ending a long-standing argument with Mercedes that could reignite this weekend.

Hamilton is chasing a fourth win in Monaco this weekend to extend their 14-point lead over Red Bulls Max Verstappen in the drivers’ standings. Verstappen finished the FP2 fourth fastest, only seven thousandths of a second behind Hamilton.

Hamilton was happy with the performance of his Mercedes W12 in practice on Thursday, but felt that there was still much to be done.

“I think the car is good, we took a couple of decent steps with the balance of the car,” said Hamilton. “I am generally very happy. I have some changes that I will probably make tonight when we analyze today. It will be close [in qualifying]. “

Team-mate Valtteri Bottas ended the day fifth in the Mercedes sister car, but had the feeling that he was having problems turning around the slower corners.

“I’m missing a lot of the front end in the car on this track,” said Bottas. “We had a few similar issues on some of the mid-corner tracks, but it’s mostly slow corners and if you can’t feel from the front about whether or not it’s going to turn, you can easily lose a lot of time.

“Also, it feels like our car feels pretty stiff, all the bumps and falls in the corners, it’s pretty annoying, so something to look at.”

The post Hamilton surprises with “strong” Ferrari F1 pace in Monaco first appeared on monter-une-startup.