Charles Leclerc's team Ferrari termed 'not reachable' by Sergio Perez after Monaco GP practice runs

Charles Leclerc's Ferrari has been termed unreachable by Sergio Perez after the first day of running at the F1 Monaco GP. The first day of running surprised a lot of people, as the timesheets saw Lewis Hamilton on top at the end of FP1.

Then came FP2 and what was quite interesting to see there was how Charles Leclerc was just in a different league compared to the competition. At one time during his medium tire run, Charles had almost a second advantage over the second fastest car while teammate Carlos Sainz was further away.

In the long runs, it did appear that Ferrari and Charles Leclerc had probably leaned a bit too much in favor of qualifying, and that had impacted the overall pace. At the same time, it is clear from the telemetry that Red Bull and McLaren had conservative power modes in use and hence had some free performance that it has not shown yet.

Red Bull did, however, struggle with the bumps, as Max Verstappen complained at one point of jumping like a Kangaroo in the car. Talking to the media, including Sportskeeda, after the day, Sergio Perez felt that Charles Leclerc's team was probably too far away considering how easy it was for the team to find the laptime. He said:

"Ferrari at the moment are just not reachable. I think they're really strong and whenever they need the lap, they just seem to put it on really easy, really quick. It's something that is quite a benefit around this place, to be able to put the lap in quick and whenever you need it to, and don't struggle so much with tyres and that sort of thing. They're looking very strong at the moment."

George Russell: "Charles Leclerc is way out in front"

Charles Leclerc during the Monaco GP qualifying

George Russell was also quite happy with how the weekend had gone. The driver felt comfortable in the car and even reckoned that this weekend, lap records could be broken as well.

Talking about the competition, however, Russell felt that Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari was maybe a step too far ahead and could not be caught. He added:

"On a track like this where you need confidence to attack, it really set us back and we just decided it was best to call it a day during the long run and try and analyse what was going on."

He added:

"But generally the car's been performing really well today. FP1 we were P3 I think and then Lewis P2 this afternoon. Clearly working well, but you know Charles is well out in front.

Leclerc is currently second in the Formula One Drivers' standings with 113 points, 48 behind Max Verstappen.