Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc made it a clean sweep of practice session top spots by beating Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen by almost three tenths of a second in the final hour of practice for the 2025 FIA Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix. However, the session was brought to premature end when Leclerc’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton crashed with just a couple of minutes remaining. 

The session got off to a slow start, with most of the expected front runners staying in the pit lane, and as the first quarter of an hour elapsed, it was Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg who led the way with a lap of 1:13.916. 

Hamilton and McLaren’s Lando Norris then had brief stays at the top before Leclerc  posted a 1:12.712 to take top spot. Norris returned to the top of the pile with a 1:12.347 but Leclerc found more time and his 1:12.199 allowed him to reclaim P1 once more. 

Verstappen, meanwhile, had been circulating on Medium tyres and after prepping his tyres the Dutchman jumped to P1 with an impressive lap of 1:11.961, signalling the red-banded C6 Soft might not be the only route to a good grid position in qualifying. 

Verstappen was then joined at the top by Red Bull team-mate Yuki Tsunoda who posted a Medium tyre time of Tsunoda 1:12.056 but Verstappen was finding even more time, and he dropped the P1 time to 1:11.653.

While other were struggling to Leclerc was having the most success in switching on the C6 Softs, however, and the Monegasque driver climbed to the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:11.532s to move ahead of Verstappen who then improved to 1:11.233s. 

That was as quick as the Dutch driver could go on Mediums and he soon headed back to the pit lane to make the switch to Soft tyres. 

However, when he returned to the track the Red Bull driver couldn’t extract more pace from the red banded tyres and his earlier time on Mediums remained his best of the session. 

It was a similar story elsewhere as drivers attempted different programmes to try to get the best out of the red-banded tyres. 

It was only Leclerc, though, who managed to find improvements across the whole track and after posting a lap of 1:11.179 and then in the closing stages of the session he posted a time of 1:10.953 to cement himself into P1 ahead of Verstappen. 

Norris finished third for McLaren with a lap of 1:11.247, 0.151s ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri. Hamilton took fifth place, but with a minute left on the clock the seven-time champion hit the barriers in Turn 4, damaging the right side of his Ferrari. The session was immediately red-flagged and did not resume. 

Behind Hamilton, Alex Albon took sixth place for Williams ahead of Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawon and the second Williams of Carlos Sainz. Tsunoda, who did find an improvement on Soft tyres finished ninth in the second Red Bull and the top ten order was completed by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli. 

2025 FIA Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix – Free Practice 3
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:10.953 25 169.312
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:11.233 0.280 23 168.646
3 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:11.247 0.294 23 168.613
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:11.398 0.445 21 168.256
5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:11.516 0.563 26 167.979
6 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:11.668 0.715 24 167.622
7 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:11.814 0.861 33 167.282
8 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 1:11.893 0.940 24 167.098
9 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:11.952 0.999 21 166.961
10 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:12.013 1.060 23 166.819
11 George Russell Mercedes 1:12.066 1.113 22 166.697
12 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:12.101 1.148 22 166.616
13 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber/Ferrari 1:12.125 1.172 25 166.560
14 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:12.194 1.241 20 166.401
15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:12.202 1.249 24 166.383
16 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1:12.251 1.298 20 166.270
17 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:12.271 1.318 30 166.224
18 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1:12.499 1.546 25 165.701
19 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber/Ferrari 1:12.601 1.648 28 165.468
20 Franco Colapinto Alpine/Renault 1:12.851 1.898 32 164.900