Sainz fastest, Verstappen unhappy as Merc debut upgrades in FP1
Ferrari’s Sainz was 0.338s faster than Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in the first of Friday’s two practice sessions, with Lewis Hamilton taking third in his upgraded W14.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton briefly topped the timesheets during FP1 but ended up 0.663s off the pace by the end of the session in his sidepod-sporting Mercedes.
Mercedes teammate George Russell endured a difficult session and ended up a lowly 15th, over 1.6s off the pace.
Last year’s Monaco winner Sergio Perez was the fastest Red Bull driver in fourth, ahead of home favourite Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen, who was left unhappy with his RB19.
Verstappen was 0.872s adrift of Sainz and made multiple trips to the garage so Red Bull could carry out set-up changes to the rear of his car.
The reigning world champion described his RB19 as “unbelievably difficult to drive” in high-speed and even warned he would “shunt with the car set-up like this” at one stage.
Lando Norris was an encouraging seventh for McLaren, ahead of Esteban Ocon’s Alpine and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
Alex Albon completed the top-10 order for Williams despite causing a late red flag when he crashed at Sainte Devote.
Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg, who was slowest of all, had a tap with the barriers which ripped off his left rear wheel and caused him to spin at the Nouvelle Chicane.
