Ferrari F1 News: BIZARRE Charles Leclerc incident brings out red flag at Monaco GP

Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 2023, social, generic — Photo: © IMAGO

Monaco Grand Prix

BIZARRE Ferrari incident causes red flag at Monaco GP

Charles Leclerc ran over some debris

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Friday 24 May 2024 14:30 Updated: 20:02

First practice at the Monaco Grand Prix was disrupted by a red flag following an incident involving Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

A brush with the barriers for Kick Sauber driver Zhou Guanyu at Turn 1 left debris strewn all over the track, and a yellow flag in the first sector was waved, warning drivers of the debris.

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However, hometown hero Leclerc came flying around the first corner, and ran over the debris, further spraying it across the track, and getting bits of Zhou's Sauber caught up within his car. Marshals then decided the session needed to be red flagged.

Ferrari managed to remove the piece of bright green livery from Leclerc's car, allowing him to continue in the session, and FP1 resumed after a few minutes' delay.

Monaco practice red flag

Leclerc has come to his home race hoping to win it for the very first time, with the Ferrari seemingly closer to the dominant Red Bull team than it has been since 2022.

The Monegasque driver will need to make use of his usually brilliant one-lap pace, with the race around the streets of Monte Carlo so often decided during Saturday qualifying.

Leclerc has not secured a pole position since the Las Vegas GP, with Max Verstappen equalling Ayrton Senna's record of eight consecutive poles last time out at the Emilia-Romagna GP.

Ferrari will hope Leclerc can get some full running today despite the incident, with the incident with the Sauber debris hopefully not causing any lasting damage.

Ferrari Charles Leclerc Monaco Grand Prix Zhou Guanyu Kick Sauber