Sainz CRASHES out of FP2 in Monaco GP practice

Matthew Hobkinson
Friday 26 May 2023 17:59 - Updated: 18:51

Carlos Sainz ended his FP2 session early at Monaco after he hit the barriers at the second swimming pool chicane.

Having set the fastest time during FP1, all eyes were on Sainz heading into the second practice session.

After a fairly uneventful 45 minutes of FP2, the Spaniard went into the barriers in the final sector to cause a brief red flag in the session while his car was removed from track.

FP1 saw two red flag incidents occur after Kevin Magnussen and Alex Albon both lost control of their Haas and Williams respectively.

READ MORE: Verstappen RAGES in Monaco GP practice as MASSIVE crash ends FP1

Thankfully, the crash for Sainz did not cause the session to prematurely end.

Albon therefore made somewhat of a miraculous return to track for the final 11 minutes of the session, with the Williams team pulling off a Herculean effort to repair the damage from the shunt in the earlier session.

Max Verstappen put his torrid FP1 session behind him to finish top of the timesheets, ahead of Charles Leclerc in second and Sainz in third.

The Mercedes upgrade package for their W14 is yet to display any significant improvement, with Lewis Hamilton finishing in sixth, while team-mate George Russell ended the session down in 12th.

READ MORE: F1 Practice Today: Monaco Grand Prix 2023 start times, schedule and TV