FP1: Hamilton, Verstappen and Bottas split by less than 0.1s

F1 Grand Prix, GP Monaco, Monte Carlo Circuit

As running commenced around the streets of Monaco, Lewis Hamilton proved fastest in his Mercedes. The Brit however was closely matched by Max Verstappen and team mate Valtteri Bottas.

While the relative performances are only really revealed in second practice, Mercedes seem to be on good form once again.

Home driver Charles Leclerc was the fastest of the Ferrari drivers and managed to go fourth fastest. He wasn't as close as he would've liked though, leaving nearly 4 tenths on the table. Sebastian Vettel was 5th fastest, another tenth further behind, but still ahead of Pierre Gasly behind the wheel of the second Red Bull.

The surprise of the morning came from Nico Hulkenberg. The Renault driver who struggled through the recent races kicked off his Monaco Grand Prix weekend in great fashion by taking 7th, just a tenth slower than Red Bull's Gasly. Hulkenberg will be eager to lead the midfield challengers to keep the front runners on their toes.

Overall, the session ran without major incidents, but many drivers were seen making small errors. Robert Kubica came closest to a crash, and spun, but got away with a mild touch with the barriers.

Before that, both Haas were bizarrely black flagged early on in the session. After the team found out they had lost telemetry and radio communication to both their cars, they conveniently asked the race director to help out, forcing both drivers back into the pits to resolve the matter.

McLaren's Carlos Sainz had the most disappointing session of all. He spent most of the session in the garage as his team were fixing a power unit issue. The Spaniard did eventually come out at the end of the session, to complete just 4 laps in the 90 minute-lasting first session.