It was a Ferrari 1-2 in the second practice of the day in Monaco, with Charles Leclerc taking the top spot from Carlos Sainz. Rounding out the top three was Lewis Hamilton.
Fast Start
In a similar vein to FP1, FP2 started with all twenty cars coming out on track in the early stages. This included the Ferrari of Leclerc, who bowed out early on in FP1. It seemed that the Ferrari engineers had fixed the issues with his car, allowing him to make up for the lost time in FP1.
The fastest time in the early stages was set by Lando Norris in the McLaren. Both McLarens are using a retro 'Gulf' livery for the weekend, which has fans up and down the grid, with Lando proving that the car not only looked good but was also extremely fast. The time wouldn't last for long, however, with both the Ferrari's and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen putting in quicker times.
The early stages of the second session of the day would see times chop and change repeatedly, with drivers rapidly swapping times and positions up and down the grid. With the session reaching quarter distance it was Hamilton who was in the top spot, with a time almost half a second clear of Verstappen, however, the Red Bull driver would bring this back to 0.2 of a second shortly after.
Ferrari would continue the strong pace that they found in FP1, despite a falling track temperature, with both cars firmly in the top six. Coming into the weekend there was speculation as to where the Scuderia would be, however, their prediction of 'best of the rest' could be a very strong one.
Solid Times and many complaints
At the midpoint of the session, the drivers were on a mix of different tires, the Alfa Romeo's of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen donned a set of soft tires a piece, which helped both cars run in the top 10, in 3rd and 8th respectively. It looked like a similar story at Williams, during the weekend of their 750th race, with Nicholas Latifi running in 10th and George Russell in 12th.
The battle up top was also heating up, as drivers progressed through their run plans, onto the faster tires and quicker times. Sainz would take the top spot for Ferrari yet again ahead of Verstappen. Verstappen had an ongoing issue with oversteer, causing him to back out of a number of flying laps, this was combined with a heavy amount of traffic in the final sector, leading to disgruntled radio messages on more than one occasion.
Little was seen of Yuki Tsunoda following a touch on one of the numerous walls on the track, following a promising morning session. It's the young Japanese driver's first chance to negotiate Monaco in a Formula One car, and losing a great deal of time could hamper his impressive progress.
Hectic end to proceedings
During the lull in the action, Leclerc put In the fastest lap of the session so far, putting both Ferraris in the top two for the afternoon, with 15 minutes remaining in the session. The time looked relatively safe, with the drivers starting their slower, race pace laps, with ten minutes left in the session.
The first real casualty of the tight Monaco streets was Mick Schumacher, as the young German driver clouted the wall on the entry to turn three, causing a puncture to the back right tire of the Haas car. Schumacher would ultimately bring it the red flag, due to where the Haas was left. The number 47 car pulled off into the run-off area at the chicane, which was deemed to be an unsafe place.
One man who would have been hoping for a better day on track was Daniel Ricciardo. The Aussie seemed to struggle for pace in both of the sessions on Thursday and in comparison to teammate Norris, it looked like a less than productive day.