Monaco GP: Mixed FP1 for Williams Racing

Team Summary:
With practice run on the Thursday rather than the normal Friday the opening Thursday practice session of the 2021 Monaco GP would get underway with a rush of drivers coming out with a mix of tyres with the majority on the hard. Both Williams drivers were on the soft tyre joined by the Haas cars. After the first rums it would be Sainz quickest with a 1m:16.241 followed by Verstappen. At the front it was now Hamilton with a 1m:15.858. Vettel was now second with the Williams drivers now 14th and 16th. Sainz was again fastest with a 1m:13.639 from Hamilton and Verstappen. But Vettel would move ahead of the Red Bull seeing Verstappen now 4th followed by Perez, Norris, Gasly, Bottas, Alonso and Raikkonen tenth. The Williams drivers were now 13th and 16th.

Bottas was now in fourth followed by Vettel, Perez, Gasly, George, Norris and Ricciardo. But Bottas would improve to be second leading Hamilton. With further runs the Williams drivers were now 8th and 12th but still on the soft tyre. With thirty eight minutes remaining Sainz was still quickest running on the medium tyre. Both Mercedes were also on the medium tyre. With further improvements the Williams drivers were now 8th and 11th. Alonso would make contact with the barrier knocking his front wing which saw him slowly drive back to the pits.

Further into the session and we would see Verstappen quickest from Perez. He had set a 1m:12.648 on th medium tyre. But Perez on the soft tyre would set a 1m:12.536 to be quickest. Gasly on the soft was now third followed by Sainz, Hamilton, Bottas, Norris, Vettel, Tsunoda and Raikkonen tenth. The Williams drivers were now 14th and 19th with just five minutes remaining. Both had been running on the hard tyre in the closing stages of the session. Both drivers would pit returning to the track to complete practice starts from the grid. A very much mixed session with the Williams drivers finishing in 14th and 19th with surprisingly Nicholas faster than team-mate George.

George Russell:
George would be first out for his installation lap running on the soft tyre. But George would quickly move into setting times and a 1m:23.762 would see him and early 7th but would drop to 14th quite quickly. This would become 20th as he worked on his radio communications with his engineer. A 1m:19.507 from George would see him currently 16th. A 1m:18.412 from George followed by a 1m:17.581 to be 15th one place behind his team-mate. He would dropt o 16th behind Tsunoda. But a 1m:16.710 from George would see him 13th followed by a 1m:16.028 to be 9th dropping to 13th. With 12 laps on his soft tyre he would set a 1m:15.225 to be 7th dropping to 8th. Even with a 1m:14.881 George would remain 8th. But even though he had set a 1m:14.840 he would drop down the order to be 19th but had switched and was now do a longer run on the hard tyre. He would complete his run with the end of the session returning to carry out a practice start on the grid.

Nicholas Latifi:
Nicholas would follow his team-mate out running on the soft tyre. Nicholas would set a 1m:29.950 on his first run on this track. But he would improve with a 1m:20.762 to be 7th dropping to 10th. Nicholas would improve to be 3rd with a 1m:17.790 but would drop to 8th. This would become 14th but a 1m:17.191 would see him improve to be 11th but would drop to 14th again. Nicholas had pitted briefly returning to set a 1m:15.707 to now be 10th. He would drop to 12th. A 1m:15.341 from Nicholas and he was now 11th dropping to 12th. He would improve with a 1m:15.181 to now be 10th. He would drop to 14th even though he had set a 1m:14.268. He had also pitted switching to the hard tyre. With the end of the session he would put returning to complete a practice start on the grid.