Antonelli edges Ferrari pair to lead red-flagged Monaco GP final practice

Kimi Antonelli stamped his authority on Monaco Grand Prix qualifying day by topping a disrupted final practice session on Saturday, setting a 1m12.720s to edge Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 0.327s. Lewis Hamilton completed an all-Ferrari-and-Mercedes top three, just 0.004s behind his former team-mate Leclerc.

Antonelli was the only driver to dip under 1m13s across the session, underlining Mercedes’ threat on a circuit where Ferrari had dominated both Friday outings with back-to-back 1-2 finishes. The Italian teenager’s benchmark came with 19 minutes remaining, finally eclipsing Hamilton’s Friday best of 1m13.026s.

The session was anything but straightforward. The early stages on soft tyres produced a frantic exchange of fastest laps between Mercedes and Ferrari. George Russell was first to crack the 1m14s barrier with a 1m13.902s, before Leclerc, Antonelli and Russell traded improvements in rapid succession. Antonelli’s progress was briefly interrupted when he encountered a slow Cadillac after posting two purple sectors, forcing a frustrated trip to the pitlane during a yellow flag caused by Alpine’s Franco Colapinto spinning at the hairpin.

Lando Norris and McLaren had briefly threatened the leading pair, with the Briton edging ahead of Ferrari in the opening phase. The team arrived at FP3 under pressure after being handed a €30,000 fine — €10,000 of which was suspended — following the MCL40 stopping on track during Friday running. Engineers then breached curfew to carry out electrical repairs on Norris’ car, making track time on Saturday morning especially critical.

The session ended under a red flag with 14 minutes remaining after Oliver Bearman caused an incident, denying George Russell a clean final push lap. Russell had been hampered by traffic throughout and was unable to improve on his earlier time, leaving him outside the top two for Mercedes.

With qualifying at Monaco carrying outsized importance — overtaking on the street circuit is notoriously difficult — Antonelli’s pace advantage heading into the afternoon session will be a significant boost for the championship leader.