Racing Bulls drivers impress with P5 and P6 showing in Monaco practice despite ‘scary’ moments for Hadjar

Racing Bulls were one of the star teams of Friday practice at the Monaco Grand Prix after Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar rounded out the top six positions in FP2 – despite the latter experiencing two crashes.

Lawson’s best time of the day was slower than only Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton and McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, with Hadjar a couple of hundredths behind his team mate.

FP2: Leclerc fastest again during second practice in Monaco as Hadjar and Piastri each cause red flags

“It’s a positive day, for sure,” Lawson said after leading the Racing Bulls charge. “It’s one of those tracks… like compared to most tracks where you are just building up through the whole weekend.

“We made a good step from the morning, but naturally tomorrow everyone is going to keep building again and we have to keep chasing that, so we will keep working on [it].

“We made a lot of changes today to be honest, and we will basically chase it again tomorrow and then see, but yeah, a positive day.”

READ MORE: Bearman handed 10-place Monaco GP grid penalty after red flag violation in practice

Expanding further on his first day in the Principality aboard Formula 1 machinery, the New Zealander commented: “It’s better in an F1 car. I’ve done it in F2 before… even though it’s faster in an F1 car, it’s more compliant, it’s obviously a nicer car, so it’s really, really fun.

“It’s very special to be able to do this here, but tomorrow is the important day, so we will focus on making another step in FP3 and try to put ourselves in a good place for quali.”

Hadjar, meanwhile, reflected on a rollercoaster first day after hitting the barriers at the Nouvelle Chicane – which triggered a red flag and forced him to crawl back to the pits for repairs – and at Sainte Devote.

“It was really intense for me,” he admitted. “Free Practice around Monaco is a lot more busy than usual with the traffic. I enjoyed it, but at the same time it was really hard, you know.

READ MORE: Verstappen impressed by ‘very, very fast’ Ferrari as he admits Red Bull ‘overdid’ set-up changes in Monaco practice

“I had a tricky day, brushing the walls, playing with the limits. FP2 got me scared because at some point I thought that was it, but I still managed to bring it back. The car didn’t really want to, but I forced it to, and we could still have a few laps on the soft.”

Paying tribute to the effort of his mechanics, the Frenchman signed off: “I’m sorry a bit for them to add a bit of work, but they are really sharp – they did amazing today.”

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