“Compared to Ferrari we still need to find more pace” – Max Verstappen

The sixth round of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship commenced on Friday with the first two practice sessions at the Monaco Grand Prix.

After Oracle Red Bull Racing’s one-two finish last time round in Barcelona, the team come into this weekend race with a lot of confidence with both drivers having solid performances across both sessions, but were not able to get the better of Scuderia Ferrari and the home favourite Charles Leclerc, who finished top of both sessions.

The current world champion Max Verstappen found himself in fourth place after both practice one and practice two, completing fifty nine laps across the sessions, with his best time coming in practice two with a 1:13.103.

Verstappen currently holds the record lap time around the Monaco Grand Prix and will be hoping for a more positive outcome going into Qualifying on Saturday after an impressive day from Ferrari and his championship rival.

“We tried quite a few different things with our set up today to see how the car is behaving, was happier with the car in FP1 than in FP2,” said Verstappen. “If we get better balance we can attack the corners a bit more, then of course our lap times will improve.

“Clearly compared to Ferrari we still need to find more pace, so now it’s all about fine tuning and finding a better balance. The track feels different this year with the new cars, the cars are a bit heavier and slower and a bit more bumpy because they are stiffer.

“It’s still very hectie to drive around here and I can’t wait for qualifying tomorrow.”

“We were surprised by the gap to Ferrari today” – Sergio Pérez

Sergio Pérez had a better day than his team-mate as he finished in second place in practice one and in third place in practice two.

Pérez completed sixty one laps across both sessions with his best time coming in the second session of the day with a time of 1:13.035 on the C5 soft tyre, the softest tyre brought to Monaco this year by Pirelli.

The Mexican driver spoke after the sessions about his excitement racing in Monaco again, but also being surprised by the gap between Red Bull and Ferrari on Friday.

“It’s really nice to be back driving in Monaco, it’s always fun out there!” said Pérez. “It has been a good few session today for us but the long runs were a bit difficult with the traffic, couldn’t do more than two laps consistently.

“All in all we seem to be lacking a bit compared to the Ferrari’s, they seem really strong. We will analyse the data and see what we can do but they seem to be very quick today. We were a little surprised by the gap to them today, we were expecting a gap but not such a gap as we’ve seen today.

“It means there is plenty of work to do and we will see tomorrow Q3 is when it matters.”

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