Scuderia Ferrari HP got through its first day's programme at the Monaco Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc setting the fastest time in both free practice sessions.

The second session saw the fastest times and in this one, Lewis Hamilton was third just over a tenth off his team-mate's time. The main goal today was for the drivers to do as many laps as possible to get to grips with running between the guardrails, brushing them to set their best times, and also with adapting to the newly resurfaced second part of the track. There was one scary moment for Charles, at the start of the first session when he was unable to avoid running into Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin, who had suddenly moved across in front of the Monegasque at the hairpin. The only damage sustained on the SF-25 was a broken front wing and it did not affect Leclerc's programme. The work continues in the final hour of free practice tomorrow at 12.30 CEST, to prepare for qualifying at 16.00, without a doubt the most important grid-deciding session of the year, given the difficulty in overtaking on the 3.337 kilometres of the Monaco circuit.

In the early afternoon, the two SF-25s started the session on Medium tyres, before Charles had to pit for a new nose and fresh tyres following the incident with Stroll. At the restart, Hamilton kept the same tyres, but Charles switched to Softs, setting the fastest time of 1'11"964, the only driver to get under the 1'12" barrier. Lewis then also fitted the softest compound, going ninth fastest in 1'12"690. In the last few minutes of the session both drivers went out on a heavier fuel load to run in race trim, with Leclerc still on Softs, while Hamilton was back on the Mediums from the start of the session. Between them they completed 63 laps, 33 for Charles and 30 for Lewis.

In the session that started at 17.00, Charles started off on the Hard tyre, while Lewis went with the Medium. They both only managed one flying lap before the session was red flagged after Isack Hadjar hit the barriers going into the harbour chicane. Halfway through the hour, Leclerc switched to the Softs, setting a time of 1'11"355, again fastest of all. Hamilton did a 1'11"460 on his second run. Once again, in the final part of the hour, both drivers ran with a heavier fuel load in race trim, using the tyres from the start of the session, the Hards for Charles and the Mediums for Lewis. Leclerc did 32 laps, two more than his team-mate.

Charles Leclerc: Monaco is always very special, not just to me but to anyone driving on this track. On Fridays, everyone is taking their reference points. It's still too early to feel very confident for the weekend, but it has been a positive first day on track for us. Our one-lap pace was strong and I felt comfortable in the car, no matter which compound we were running on.

Qualifying is going to be fundamental around here as usual and we have to be starting in front if we want to bring home a good result.

Lewis Hamilton: It's been a positive day. This track is always a challenge but in the best way, and experiencing it in a Ferrari makes it even more special. We completed our programme and gathered a lot of useful data which we'll continue working through tomorrow. The pace felt promising overall; however, there's still time to find.

I'm getting a good feeling from the car and the balance is not bad, so I'm looking forward to building on this as the weekend goes on.

Check out our Friday gallery from Monaco here.