Ahead of today's second practice session the air temperature is 27 degrees C, while the track temperature is 46 degrees. It remains bright and sunny.

All the teams are running upgrades this weekend, some more than others, and while most are circuit specific, we know that others - we're looking at you Mercedes - are for performance with the remaining 16 races in mind.

As a reminder, here are the upgrades the teams have brought this weekend.

Red Bull has a new Rear Wing and Front Suspension, while Ferrari has a Rear Corner and Rear Wing. As for Mercedes - deep breath - there's a new Front Suspension, Floor Fences, Sidepod Inlet, Coke/Engine Cover, Rear Wing and Rear Corner.

Alpine also has a whole host of updates, including a new Front Suspension, Sidepod Inlet, Floor Edge, Rear Wing and Beam Wing, while McLaren has revised Floor Fences, Front Corner, Rear Corner, Rear Wing and Beam Wing.

At Alfa Romeo there's a new Coke/Engine Cover, Floor Edge, Floor Body, Rear Suspension, Rear Corner, Rear Wing, Beam Wing and Cooling Louvres.

Aston Martin has a new Front Suspension, Front Corner, Rear Suspension, Rear Corner and Rear Wing, while Haas has a new Front Wing and Front Suspension.

At AlphaTauri there's a new Floor Body, Floor Fences, Floor Edge, Diffuser, Sidepod Inlet, Coke/Engine Cover, Rear Wing and Rear Wing Endplate, while Williams has a new Rear Wing, Beam Wing, Front Suspension, Front Suspension and Front Corner.

As expected, FP1 was fast and furious, with an emphasis on furious, with Hamilton and Verstappen enjoying a little argy bargy and Hulkenberg and Albon both bringing out the red flags, the Briton crashing into the barriers in the final moments of the session.

Though it was fast and furious earlier, it's worth pointing out that we have yet to see the soft tyres in action, so we are anticipating some significant lap times in the latter stages of the next hour, even though tomorrow's qualifying session takes place an hour earlier.

Despite the frantic activity in the Williams garage, Albon is expected to miss the first 20 minutes of the session... at least.

The lights go green and Sargeant leads the way, followed by de Vries, Hulkenberg, Bottas and Ocon.

As more drivers head out, most are on mediums, though the Ferrari pair are on hards. Interestingly, this is the complete opposite of the start of FP1 when Norris was also on the mediums.

Of the first wave, Russel goes quickest (15.482), ahead of Verstappen, Hamilton and Alonso.

Sainz subsequently posts a 15.549 to go third.

Other than Albon, Norris is another no show, as mechanics work on the front suspension of his McLaren.

"F*** sake," exclaims Perez following a close encounter with another driver at Massenet.

Quickest in all three sectors, Verstappen crosses the line at 13.985.

A 14.612 sees Ocon improve to fourth, but Stroll's 14.432 subsequently demotes him to fifth.

Hamilton goes quickest by one-thousandth of a second, as the Ferrari pair almost trip up over one another.

Verstappen posts a 13.857 as Tsunoda goes fifth with a 14.263. The Dutchman subsequently complains - doesn't he always - that his brakes are too cold in Turn 1.

Amazon goes second, just 0.015s off the pace, while Sainz posts a very impressive 13.953 to go third, very impressive because he is on the hards.

Norris finally appears, and like the Ferraris he is on the white-banded rubber.

No sooner has Russel gone third than he is demoted when Sainz improves to second with a 13.808.

Sainz complains about Perez, questioning the Mexican's driving standards after the Red Bull driver attempted to get out of Hulkenberg's way and blocked the Ferrari in the process. "I don't know what he was doing," complains the Spaniard.

Meanwhile, 22 minutes in, the Aston Martins are first to switch to the softs. Unsurprisingly, it's purples all the way, the two-time world champion crossing the line at 12.786.

Stroll goes third with a 13.642, 0.856s off his teammate's pace.

As more drivers make the switch to softs, Norris has a very, very, very close encounter with the barriers at Rascasse.

Bottas goes third, ahead of Stroll, de Vries goes sixth and Zhou seventh.

Russell cuts the chicane when he sees Alonso looming large in his mirrors. The Spaniard questions why the Mercedes driver felt the need to do so.

Ocon goes second (13.162), but all eyes are on Hamilton who can only manage fifth (13.205).

Sainz (softs) goes quickest with a 12.569, as the Bulls, Norris and Hulkenberg remain the only drivers yet to make the switch.

Leclerc goes third, 0.386s off his teammate's pace.

Finally on the softs, Verstappen goes quickest in the opening sector, and as a result of losing time in S2 can only manage third (13.737), 0.168s down on Sainz.

With 25 minutes remaining, it's: Sainz, Alonso, Verstappen, Leclerc, Norris, Perez, Hamilton, Bottas, Gasly and Ocon.

Meanwhile, Albon is climbing into his car. His team has fitted various new components, including a new gearbox, but he has the old rear wing having damaged the new wing in his FP1 crash.

On his next hot lap, Verstappen digs deep and produces a 12.462 to go top by 0.107s.

As Leclerc improves to second with a 12.527 it is clear that the red-banded rubber is good for a couple of hot laps.

Told where he's losing out - he's 0.498s off the pace - Hamilton replies: "Damn, I can't go quicker."

As Tsunoda clips the barriers, puncturing his rear-left in the process, Sainz goes one better and goes into the barriers at the Swimming Pool exit after clipping the kerbs.

"I crashed, sorry," says the Spaniard.

The session is red-flagged, subsequently resuming with 12 minutes remaining.

One of the first out is Albon, who has yet to post a time. The Williams driver is on softs.

Judging by the radio comms, Norris appears to have an issue. Indeed, he subsequently pits. "Something's wrong," he reports.

Never mind Lando, the livery looks cool.

Albon posts an exploratory 15.515.

Happy with his potential qualifying pace, Verstappen switches back to the mediums as he looks ahead to Sunday.

De Vries has completed the most lap (31), ahead of Leclerc, Bottas, Hulkenberg and Sargeant who are all on 30.

Tsunoda's speeding in the pitlane has been noted.

The session ends. Verstappen is quickest, ahead of Leclerc, Sainz, Alonso, Norris, Hamilton, Perez, Bottas, Gasly and Ocon.

Stroll is eleventh, ahead of Russell, Zhou, Magnussen, Hulkenberg, Tsunoda, de Vries, Piastri, Albon and Sargeant.

While Red Bull appears to have got on top of the issues that plagued Verstappen this morning, the numerous red flags prove -as if proof were really needed - that the Principality still has the ability to bite back at the most minor of mistakes, as Hulkenberg, Albon and Sainz have fount to their cost today.

And as the pressure ramps up over the days ahead, the chances are that more mistakes will follow.

Check out our Friday gallery from Monaco here.