Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc becomes the first driver to top all three practice sessions since Mexico 23. Ferrari did look dominant but the question is – have they been running the engine higher? Even if that is true, the difference would not be much. The Ferrari’s had a strong showing and it looks like they are going to match the Papaya cars blow for blow. Hamilton also looked more comfortable with the car than the other weekends. He had a few niggles, like sending the car flying over a curb though that made for an amazing picture.

Stroll was up to his usual antics in the sessions. First in the starting minutes of FP1 he moved on the racing line after letting Kimi pass failing to see the Charles coming behind and even the blue flags flashing. Then he mistook Leclerc for Gasly at the tunnel. He has got a one-place grid penalty for the earlier incident. So we’ll see how that pans out.

Mclaren didn’t seem to have too many issues in the sessions, Piastri did struggle a bit and didn’t seem as good as Lando but the difference is not big. They might be concerned about their tire wear in dirty air but on this circuit, it’s not going to matter.

RBR once again turned the car around in FP3. Max struggled to get a good lap in the preceding sessions and was upset about the balance of his car. In FP3 however, he was the fastest on the mediums and his time held even during the initial soft runs and only after the track got better the time was bested. On softs Red Bull still had issues, they wore out too quickly and the session ended with both RBR drivers having their best laps on the mediums.

Overall, the drivers struggled with the traffic, took some time to adjust to the narrow layout and often clipped the barriers as they pushed the limits. Track evolution as expected was very high and drivers got more grip as the sessions went on.

What to expect from qualifying?

Fireworks, close margins, crashes and drivers one upping the lap times. Qualifying is always the main event here at Monaco and it might be the most exciting quali on the calendar.

Charles is absolutely the prime contender for pole but will be challenged by Lando Norris. Charles is the reigning champion and has looked promising this year too but Lando has a knack for qualifying and looks to be out his bad form.

Piastri and Max will be up there too but they haven’t been as good as those two till now. Red Bull unable to keep the softs for over a lap might throw a spanner in the works.

Williams, Racing Bulls and Aston would be battling for the mid field spots, a good strategy and putting together the lap together will be of utmost importance for them.

As we saw in Imola, some might prefer mediums for their quali run. The high track evolution often leads to the final moments of Q3 being a pure jaw dropping spectacle.