"Wow": F1 driver astonished by Charles Leclerc's stunning lap at Monaco GP Free Practice

Alpine driver Pierre Gasly was astonished with Charles Leclerc's lap during the free practice session on Friday. The 26-year-old clocked 1:11.5 on medium tires during the second free practice session.

The Monaco Grand Prix weekend kicked off with drivers setting personal best laptimes around the Circuit de Monaco. The weekend is one of the most difficult ones in the entire calendar because of its narrow margin of error and the hard-to-overtake layout.

Local boy Charles Leclerc finished off the day on a high by putting in the fastest laptime on charts after clocking 1:11.2. Pierre Gasly was rather impressed by Leclerc's laptimes. When his race engineer informed him about one of his laps, saying:

"So Leclerc on medium has done a 1.11.5"

He simply responded with:

"Wow."

While Leclerc is a loved face around the circuit, he hasn't had the luck in all his F1 seasons to finish even at the podium. In his first season with Sauber, he crashed out of the race. In 2021, after scoring pole position, he couldn't start the race as his gearbox failed. The season following that, a strategy blunder took his chances for a podium, and in 2023, he finished P6. However, the condition of his car looks better this season.

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Charles Leclerc "confident" with his SF-24 at Monaco

Charles Leclerc at the Monaco GP

After a seemingly positive day for the Monegasque around his home circuit, he revealed that he is confident with his car. At the end of the first practice session, he was P5, +0.2 seconds from the leader, Lewis Hamilton, who will also be his teammate in the next season.

In FP2, he set the pace for the rest of the field. As he revealed speaking to the media after the session, the car was more stable on the medium compound compared to the softs. But overall, Leclerc revealed that he was confident with the car.

"I think on the medium we were really strong, on the soft we struggled to put everything together. There was a lot of traffic all the way but all in all, we have a good car for the moment," Charles Leclerc said. "I feel quite confident with the car. However, it’s super important that we keep this rhythm into FP3 because it’s the way Monaco is."

He further mentioned that he would focus on the qualifying session on Saturday, but the results from the Friday sessions were positive.

"I might have taken a bit more risk compared to the others today, which paid off. However, it’s all about tomorrow in quali when everybody starts to go on the limit. Until now, I think we’ve done a really, really good job, but we need to keep working, keep focusing on ourselves, but it’s a positive first day."

Charles Leclerc currently stands second in the world championship behind reigning champion Max Verstappen. He has remarkably finished within the top four of all the races in the season so far.