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Currently in the drop zone: Gabriel Bortoleto, Fernando Alonso, Oliver Bearman, Lance Stroll and Franco Colapinto.
Verstappen, Norris and Piastri taking nothing for granted, all taking fresh tyres.
Piastri lowers the best to a 1’11.385.
“Shocking from Stroll.” Gasly is furious about being held up by the Aston Martin at the chicane. The stewards are investigating that.
Norris puts up the quickest time so far with a 1’11.596 which puts him 0.324s ahead of Verstappen.
Verstappen looked strong in final practice and he goes to the top now by 0.171s.
The Ferraris go top, Leclerc on a 1’12.091, Hamilton 0.245s off.
Lando Norris goes top by just a hundredth of a second from Lance Stroll. Oscar Piastri beats it comfortably by four tenths of a second. Albon then splits them. Just Russell and Verstappen yet to set times.
No great surprise as Charles Leclerc’s first lap puts him on top, he’s spent a lot of time there this weekend. But Liam Lawson, who’s had a very strong weekend so far, beats his time by a tenth of a second.
Nico Hulkenberg puts in a 1’13.354, then Alexander Albon beats that time by two tenths of a second.
The Alpine drivers are the only ones on medium rubber so far.
Williams lead the field out on softs, followed by Haas on softs. Pierre Gasly is on a set of mediums.
Drivers are lining up for the start of the session. Soft tyres for the Aston Martins and Ferraris.
We had two crashes in Q1 at the last race – Colapinto and Tsunoda – and it could be even harder for drivers to keep it out of the barriers here.
Two drivers already have penalties for tomorrow’s races. Stroll has a one-place grid drop and Bearman 10. However the stewards cleared Sainz and Colapinto after investigating whether they overtook under red flags during final practice.
Hamilton is touring his Ferrari garage, personally thanking the various mechanics who put his car back together.
Ferrari say they’ve changed the nose, front wing and right-front suspension on Hamilton’s car, plus the entire rear end, including left and right-hand suspension and the gearbox. This takes last time than replacing the damaged right-rear suspension parts. He should therefore be good to go for qualifying.
It wasn’t all good news for Ferrari in final practice as Lewis Hamilton crashed heavily in the closing minutes. The team have a repair job to do on his car, but the damage did not look severe enough to put his participation in qualifying in doubt.
That was the case at Imola too. If you run the medium in qualifying you deplete your stock for the race. At Imola that was potentially a disadvantage, as Aston Martin’s experience showed. But in Monaco, where track position is vital, it may matter less. Hanging over all that is the additional complication caused by the new rule which will force drivers to use three tyre sets in the grand prix. However it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a lot of medium tyres appear in qualifying.
However big question marks hang over exactly what will be the best strategy for qualifying in Monaco. Some drivers managed to get faster lap times out of the medium rubber than the softs in final practice.
Charles Leclerc has taken pole position for three of the last four Monaco grands prix and appears to have a great chance of producing another as he has been fastest throughout all three practice sessions.
Qualifying for the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix is coming up next.
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