Monaco FP1: Encouraging start for Max with second place

Published on 23 May 2019 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen enjoyed a good start to his Monaco Grand Prix weekend. The Aston Martin Red Bull Racing driver split the two Mercedes to finish free practice one in second place. Lewis Hamilton was quickest of the Silver Arrows. His team mate, Valtteri Bottas, was third fastest. Both Ferraris, Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc, completed the top five.

At the start of the session we see several tributes to Niki Lauda, the Formula 1 icon who passed away on Monday. Red Bull run their RB15s with a picture of the triple world champion and the words ‘danke Niki’ on their barge boards, whilst Sebastian Vettel’s helmet sports a special Lauda tribute livery.

The session starts with installation laps by most drivers. Fifteen minutes in, we do not see a yellow or a red flag, but a black flag waved for both Haas drivers. The team has issues with its radio system making it impossible to communicate with its drivers. Haas therefore asks the FIA to signal the black flag to Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen to coax the two back to the pits.

 Apart from minor trips into the sparse run-off areas, most teams appear comfortable in running through their programmes. Nevertheless, the walls in Monaco are looming. The first driver to meet themr is Robert Kubica. After a spin, the nose of his Williams touches the barrier, but luckily there is hardly any damage.

With thirty minutes to go, Max heads out on a fresh set of tyres. The Dutchman proves to eager to make the most of the new Pirellis and at Mirabeau the youngster misses the corner. Luckily, the marshalls are at hand to point the RB15 in the right direction and Max is on his way. Sergio Perez (Racing Point) and Lando Norris (McLaren) als need an extra bit of track at Mirabeau.

Max’ minor excursion has not damaged his confidence as five minutes later, he clocks his fastest lap of the morning, 1:12.165, two hundredths of a seconds behind Hamilton and one hundreth in front of Bottas.

 In the final quarter of an hour, Haas are finally back on track after their radio issues. Grosjean brushes the barrier on one of his laps but can continue. Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz has bigger issues to content with. The Spaniard’s McLaren has only been able to do one installation lap at the start of the session and one lap at the very end.

Meanwhile, Max ends FP1 with a handful of laps, bringing his tally to 35 completed laps around the streets of Monte Carlo.

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Results first free practice Monaco: