Sergio Perez quickest in Monaco as Charles Leclerc suffers more home blues

Sergio Perez in Monaco practice — Photo: © LAT Images

Monaco Grand Prix

Perez quickest in Monaco as Leclerc suffers more home blues

Red Bull driver finished 0.119s clear of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz

Ian Parkes

Thursday 20 May 2021 12:38 Updated: 12:52

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Sergio Perez spearheaded a Red Bull one-two in first practice as F1 returned to the streets of Monaco.

Following its absence from the calendar last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, F1's blue-riband event is the sign of a slow return to some degree of normality for the sport.

Under typically blue Meditteranean skies, Perez led the way with a lap of one minute 12.487secs, finishing 0.119s clear of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz who split the Red Bull pair with his best lap with five minutes of the hour-long session remaining.

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Max Verstappen was forced to settle for the third quickest time, finishing 0.161s down on Perez. Like Sainz, the Dutchman was on the medium tyre compared to the soft for the Mexican.

But it serves as a welcome marker for Red Bull, with team principal Christian Horner making clear the team 'desperately needs' Perez to start supporting Verstappen in the fight for this year's titles with Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton.

Perez had suggested coming into this weekend if he could finally find comfort in the car then he would be set for the weekend, and he at least has provided himself with a platform on which to build.

AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly finished over four-tenths of a second down on Perez on the soft tyre, with the Frenchman followed by Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, who were on Pirelli's medium rubber.

Championship leader Hamilton was half-a-second back, with Bottas 0.644s off the pace in what was a relatively quiet session for the duo as they simply racked up the laps around the Principality.

Fresh from signing his new deal with McLaren, and with the car sporting its one-off livery in conjunction with Gulf, Lando Norris was three-quarters of a second back in seventh, finishing a second quicker than team-mate Daniel Ricciardo who was down in 15th.

Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel was a further half-a-second back in eighth on the timesheet, finishing ahead of AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda on his Monaco debut and Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen. Tsunoda was also on soft tyres.

Fernando Alonso, a double Monaco GP winner, compromised his session by clipping the barrier at the final corner, damaging the front wing on his Alpine and necessitating an obvious change.

Alonso finished 13th behind Aston Martin's Lance Stroll and Antonio Giovinazzi in his Alfa Romeo, with Williams' Nicholas Latifi 14th ahead of Ricciardo.

Esteban Ocon was 16th ahead of Haas duo Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher, with George Russell down in 19th in his Williams, 2.353s down.

For Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who had lamented his wretched luck at his home track coming into this week, the Monégasque could not have started his latest attempt in more disastrous fashion.

Leclerc had only completed four laps when his SF21 sustained a gearbox issue that brought his session to an end after just 10 minutes, naturally leaving him at foot of the timesheet almost seven seconds shy of Perez.

Monaco GP first practice times

1 Sergio Perez [Red Bull] 1:12.487secs

2 Carlos Sainz [Ferrari] +0.119s 3 Max Verstappen [Red Bull] +0.161s 4 Pierre Gasly [AlphaTauri] +0.442s 5 Lewis Hamilton [Mercedes] +0.508s 6 Valtteri Bottas [Mercedes] +0.644s 7 Lando Norris [McLaren] +0.749s 8 Sebastian Vettel [Aston Martin] +1.245s

9 Yuki Tsunoda [AlphaTauri] + 1.259s 10 Kimi Raikkonen [Alfa Romeo] +1.594s 11 Lance Stroll [Aston Martin] +1.603s 12 Antonio Giovinazzi [Alfa Romeo] +1.619s 13 Fernando Alonso [Alpine] +1.718s

14 Nicholas Latifi [Williams] +1.781s 15 Daniel Ricciardo [McLaren] +1.794s

16 Esteban Ocon [Alpine] +1.833s 17 Nikita Mazepin [Haas] +2.129s 18 Mick Schumacher [Haas] +2.314s 19 George Russell [Williams] +2.353s 20 Charles Leclerc [Ferrari] +7.131s