Leclerc heads Hamilton in Monaco first practice

Charles Leclerc won in Monaco - his home race - in 2024

>Charles Leclerc led Lewis Hamilton to a Ferrari one-two in first practice at the Monaco Grand Prix as Isack Hadjar crashed his Red Bull.

>Leclerc was 0.226 seconds quicker than Hamilton, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen 0.513secs off the pace in third place, ahead of the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.

>Hadjar lost control on the entry to the second Swimming Pool chicane, the rear swinging around on entry and spinning him into the barriers on the exit.

>And Fernando Alonso rescued what could have been a high-speed crash at the harbour front chicane in his Aston Martin.

>The rear flicked sideways as he went over the crest at the start of the braking point, and as he corrected, the car fishtailed, sending the front towards the barriers.

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>Although the incident broke the car's front-wind endplate, Alonso kept it largely under control and out of the barriers as it slid wildly up the kerb on the outside of the circuit.

>Aston Martin said the incident was not caused by driver error, adding the car is difficult to drive and the brakes locked.

>Team representative Pedro de la Rosa said: "What we have right now is a very difficult car and drivers doing their best and doing an incredible job to drive the car in a reliable and safe way.

>"I don't really know exactly what happened. It was rear locking but I haven't been able to look at the data and I haven't spoken to Fernando (yet).

>"He let go of the brakes just to recover, otherwise it would have been a full spin, so he did really well to come out of that with just a little broken front wing endplate.

>"It is all part of the same problem, the drivability and predictability of the car on braking."

>The Ferrari drivers were quick throughout, but the car looked on edge.

>Both made at least two visits to escape roads at the first corner and chicane, and Leclerc kept the car at Sainte Devote as he suffered a big oversteer slide as he sought to put the power down to launch it up the hill.

>McLaren's Lando Norris was sixth fastest, split from team-mate Oscar Piastri by Audi's Nico Hulkenberg.

>The second Audi of Gabriel Bortoleto was ninth, ahead of the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.

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