On the first day of track action for the Monaco Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc made the most of being on home turf. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers teams' and drivers' reaction after the opening day at Monte Carlo.

Ferrari

"Monaco is always very special, not just to me but to anyone driving on this track. On Fridays, everyone is taking their reference points. It’s still too early to feel very confident for the weekend, but it has been a positive first day on track for us.

"Our one-lap pace was strong and I felt comfortable in the car, no matter which compound we were running on. Qualifying is going to be fundamental around here as usual and we have to be starting in front if we want to bring home a good result."

Lewis Hamilton - FP1: 1:12.690, P9; FP2: 1:11.460, P3
"It's been a positive day. This track is always a challenge but in the best way, and experiencing it in a Ferrari makes it even more special. We completed our programme and gathered a lot of useful data which we’ll continue working through tomorrow. The pace felt promising overall; however, there’s still time to find.

McLaren

“A trickier day. We come away from it feeling quite good, but it's been one of the tougher Fridays. We’ve got some things to still go over and try to improve, but I think we’re in decent shape. Thanks to the team for the quick turnaround to get me back on track.”

“It’s been a reasonable Friday. I felt comfortable from the beginning, but we need to improve in some areas which I’m positive we can work on as a team. A solid start to the weekend.”

Red Bull

“Monaco is always quite tricky with traffic. I think there were moments where it was quite dangerous, which isn’t ideal. I know it is practice but it could have been worse if you don’t back out of it quickly and don’t read the situation. In terms of how we are looking for the weekend, I think FP1 was quite positive but then we made some changes for FP2.

"We looked at how far we could push the balance and I think we just overdid it a little bit and I couldn’t attack the corners as much as I would have liked to. We were shedding a lot of pace and lap time. I don’t expect us to be the quickest, but we of course want to be a lot closer similar to what we were like in FP2.

"We could be a lot closer but the Ferraris again were looking fast and the McLarens were close behind. If you see over the whole season the pace, Ferrari has taken a big step forward here."

“As usual in Monaco, we had a bit of traffic in practice today but it’s the same for everyone and it is just a case of luck. In P1 we didn’t have much luck but fortunately in P2 we got more laps.

"It was alright today; I think I was really able to feel the limitation in the soft tyre but it is kind of similar to the limitations I felt in P1. I just don’t feel much step from the soft, in terms of grip and that is what I am struggling with. I didn’t get much running on the medium to try that out, I got one lap and then with it was very interrupted with the red flag.

"We certainly made a step with the car from P1 to P2 but there are still some small things we need to squeeze out of the car and I need a couple of tenths more. We have shown there is some potential there so I just have to squeeze it out of myself, keep doing what I am doing, build up the pace and hopefully I can put it all together in Qualifying."

Mercedes

George Russell - FP1: 1:12.482, P6; FP2: 1:12.092, P12
"It is always intense around Monaco but it's amazing to drive here. The streets are narrow and fitting 20 F1 cars on the circuit always been a challenge. All teams always try to have a 2.5s gap between every car to be able to complete their program, but as Yuki (Tsunoda) said, it's really "traffic paradise" around here.

"We were not particularly quick today, but I am still confident for tomorrow. There are clear improvements we can make overnight with the car, and we have some ideas about how to get the tyres into a better window for the single lap. Saturday is usually the key day in Monaco with the outcome of Qualifying being highly decisive for the race.

"With the mandatory two stop this year though, it will likely make things interesting. Being in the top three after Qualifying might not be as vital as it has been in years past. Nevertheless, we will be giving it our all to be as high up on the grid come Sunday."

"Today was a bit tricky on my side. I struggled to find the right balance with the car and was unable to get the maximum out of the tyres. We experimented with different approaches to the warm-up in both sessions, but it still proved challenging to get the tyres in the right window on lap one.

"That said, we still learned a lot today. I also thoroughly enjoyed driving here in Monaco in F2 last year. In an F1 car though, it's even more magical. I'm excited for tomorrow's Qualifying session where we push the car to its absolute maximum with no room for error.

"Performance wise, the Ferraris looked strong in both FP1 and FP2. We also know that the McLarens have been right at the front since the start of the season. Tomorrow won't be easy, therefore. As always though, we are focused on ourselves and trying to improve session-by-session. We'll analyse all the data overnight and will be ready for tomorrow."

Williams

Alex Albon - FP1: 1:12.314, P4; FP2: 1:11.918, P8
"I don’t think we are totally happy with the car yet. There’s a rhythm that you need around Monaco and it’s been quite a disjointed day because of all the yellow and red flags, so I haven’t found that feeling yet. We are relatively quick, and the car is not quite there yet, so we need to go through the data, make some changes tonight and get well prepared for tomorrow."

"We started FP1 with a car that wasn’t giving me a lot of confidence, but I still managed to do some good laps. I had some work to do on setup and for FP2 we introduced some changes that unfortunately didn’t seem to work and we took a step back. We’ve got work for tomorrow, but I’m confident we can find the right balance and do a good build up for Qualifying."

Aston Martin

"I was a bit happier with the balance of the car in FP2 today after some set-up changes and hopefully we can take another step tomorrow. It's a track where you have to keep building the momentum and confidence. Traffic will be one of the main topics tomorrow, so let's see if we can get some clean laps in Qualifying."

"It wasn't an easy FP1 for us today: we missed out on a lot of running due to contact with Charles Leclerc. The team in the garage worked hard to get the car back running ahead of FP2 and we made progress with the programme. We now need to see what changes we can make overnight to improve the car and be ready for Qualifying."

Alpine

“It is great to be back in Monaco. It’s definitely one of the highlights of the year and I do love driving here. I would say Free Practice 1 was much better for us than Free Practice 2. We settled into a nice rhythm straight away and ended the session in eighth place. Others seemed to make a bigger step in performance in the second session so there are some question marks on our side.

"We had clean laps but we just seemed to lack pace. As of now, we are on the backfoot compared to those around us. We have some work to do overnight and we need to find some performance to put ourselves into the battle. I know we can do it and I am looking forward to one of the best Qualifying sessions of the year tomorrow.”

Franco Colapinto - FP1: 1:13.820, P19; FP2: 1:13.415, P20
“It was nice to experience Monaco in a Formula One car today for the first time. The circuit has its unique challenges and requires a lot of confidence as a driver to put in a strong lap. We have used the day to build up my confidence in the car over the course of the two sessions and I feel we are in a good position in that regard going into tomorrow.

"We had a couple of positive long runs, but we faced a lot of traffic and a Red Flag in Free Practice 2, which made the second session quite tricky to manage.

"We are slightly off the pace, and we need to work tonight to understand where we can extract more from both cars, especially considering the important role Qualifying will play this weekend. Pierre and I will work with the team to debrief from the day and aim to come back stronger tomorrow.”

Haas

"On Friday it’s normal to start pushing the limits, but there were no dramas. I brushed the wall a little bit in Turn 16 once, but I’ve seen other drivers do a bit more. Unfortunately, not very quick today, so we have a lot of work for tomorrow to figure quite a lot of things out and get some more pace for Saturday."

"It’s nice to be racing on the streets of Monaco, it always presents a good challenge. My feeling was that we did a good step from FP1 to FP2 with the car and I was happy with the balance. We also tried to short-run the medium and see how its performance was over one lap and it seemed pretty robust.

"Qualifying is really the goal, but we’ll have to see as I did my performance laps on mediums, which was quite different from some of the others. I think there are some good signs from today, so let’s look to improve on them tomorrow."

Kick Sauber

"It was a decent and trouble-free Friday overall. I felt quite comfortable in the car right from the beginning of FP1, which is particularly important on a tight street circuit like Monaco.

"We found a good baseline setup, and now it's all about extracting the right insights from the data to finetune a few areas overnight. As expected, the field is incredibly tight, so even small improvements can make a significant difference."

“It was my first experience driving in Monaco in a Formula One car, and it was just insane. The adrenaline through the run here is so high—you have such a big car on a small track and you’re pushing to the limit, constantly close to the walls. It’s unreal, it’s so different from every other category I’ve run here before and I’m really enjoying it.

"Overall, today was positive—we made some progress, and I'm becoming increasingly confident with the car. No one is fully at the limit yet; you don't want to risk too much before qualifying. I'm getting up to speed quickly, and FP2 was especially good for me.

"As always, we need to look carefully at the data tonight to understand where we can improve: it's going to be tight again this weekend, but if we put a good car together and I deliver my best driving, I believe we can achieve another good result in qualifying.”