Charles Leclerc led Friday practice for the Monaco Grand Prix; the Ferrari driver narrowly outpacing Formula 1 championship leader Oscar Piastri.

Leclerc, last year’s race winner, went quickest by 0.038sec from his McLaren rival and a tenth from Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who was third fastest in the second session

In an incident-filled hour of FP2 running that included two red flags, Leclerc emerged on top with a lap of 1min 11.355sec.

Lando Norris finished fourth fastest in the second McLaren, albeit over three-tenths off Leclerc’s pace.

The Racing Bulls team enjoyed a strong, if incident-packed day as Liam Lawson completed the top five ahead of team-mate Isack Hadjar, who damaged his car twice during the 60 minutes.

The session was red-flagged seven minutes after the start when Hadjar made contact with the wall at the Nouvelle chicane when he turned left and hit the barrier with his rear left tyre.

The Racing Bulls driver managed to return to the pits, essentially on three wheels, and the session resumed some four minutes later.

A second red-flag period was triggered 20 minutes into the session when Piastri crashed into the barriers at St Devote after overshooting the corner.

The championship leader hit the tyre barrier at a relative low speed, losing his front wing. He then drove back to the pits and returned to the track after a brief stop.

Hadjar crashed for a second time with 11 minutes left on the clock, this time hitting the barriers after losing the rear end of his car at St Devote. Having damaged his car’s suspension, he drove back to the garage, but his day was done.

“Man, I am so stupid. I think I’m just dumb,” lamented Hadjar on the radio.

Fernando Alonso was seventh fastest in the Aston Martin ahead of the Williams of Alexander Albon and Kimi Antonelli, the quickest of the Mercedes drivers as team-mate George Russell finished down in 12th.

World champion Max Verstappen ended up in 10th position in FP2, the Red Bull driver one of many who had to reverse on track having gone off near the end of the session.

Haas driver Oliver Bearman is facing an investigation for failing to comply with the second red flag.

Leclerc had endured a rough start to the weekend, going off at Mirabeau right at the beginning of the first session. He had to drive in reverse to return to track, only to crash into the back of Lance Stroll a few minutes later.

Leclerc was approaching the Loews hairpin just as Stroll had moved out of the way for another car and was returning to the racing line, unaware that the Ferrari was behind him.

Leclerc had nowhere to go and crashed into the back of the Aston Martin, damaging his front wing after a heavy impact. The incident triggered a red-flag period as the debris was removed from the track.

“We crashed. I don’t think he was aware of the blue flags,” Leclerc reported on the radio.

The incident ended the session for Stroll, while Leclerc returned to action quickly and went on to set the fastest time.

The Aston Martin driver was found to be at fault and handed a one-place grid penalty as a result.

Both sessions were riddled with complaints about traffic as drivers struggled to get out of the way on the narrow streets of the principality.

The red flags brought added complication to the busy sessions and caught out Haas driver Oliver Bearman, who has a ten-place grid penalty for overtaking during a red flag period.

Monaco GP FP2 results

Monaco GP FP1 results