Formula 1: Verstappen was fastest in practice at the Monaco GP but with the Ferraris on the alert

the Dutch Max Verstappen (Red Bull), leader of the championship and who aspires to conquer the third consecutive title, was the fastest this Friday in the day of free practice for the Monaco Grand Prixthe sixth of the Formula One World Championship, which is held on the urban circuit of Montecarlo; followed by the local charles leclerc (Ferrari) and where the Spanish Charles Sainz (Ferrari) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) signed for the third and fourth time respectively.

in the best case 30 rounds that he gave away in the second training session – in which everyone set the fastest laps of the day, with the soft tire and in which the Mexican Sergio Perez (Red Bull) signed the seventh time-, Verstappen covered the 3,337 meters from the track on the streets of the Côte d’Azur principality in one minute, twelve seconds and 462 thousandths, only 65 less than the Monegasque Leclerc.

In a session that Sainz, who scored the third -107 thousandths of a second from his first teammate in F1 (in 2015 and with Toro Rosso, current Alpha Tauri)-, it ended before its time; when he lost control of his car in the pool areacausing – in the absence of 17 – an interruption, with a red flag, of about five minutes.

Sainz -who completed 22 laps in the evening session- suffered no physical consequences, but damaged the right side of his Ferrariwho had an accident at the sixteenth of the 19 turns of the legendary Monegasque track: in the same area where his teammate Leclerc suffered the same mishap in 2021.

Alonso finished fourth in the standings. The two-time world champion from Asturias, third in the race, 44 points behind ‘Mad Max’, was two tenths behind the Dutchman in a training session in which he completed 31 laps.

‘Czech’, second in the worldfourteen points from the 119 with which his team-mate is in the lead, he set the seventh fastest time of the day, the one set in the second session, in which he repeated the layout of the circuit that hosts the most iconic race on the calendar 29 times.

The courageous driver from Guadalajara, who wants to repeat last year’s victory on the streets of Montecarlo, is 529 thousandths behind the Dutchman.