Kimi Antonelli tops a chaotic final Monaco GP practice after late red flag

Kimi Antonelli set the pace in a chaotic final Formula 1 free practice session ahead of Monaco Grand Prix qualifying, topping the timesheets shortly before a red flag ruined the field's qualifying simulations. Ollie Bearman's late crash halted proceedings for 11 minutes, allowing Antonelli to lead Charles Leclerc by 0.327s, with Lewis Hamilton a mere four-thousandths of a second further back in third.

Why it matters:

Monaco is a circuit where confidence and rhythm are everything, and Antonelli's pace suggests Mercedes has rediscovered the form it lacked on Friday. The red flag disruption means teams now head into qualifying with incomplete data, raising the stakes for a clean lap in a session where grid position frequently dictates the race outcome.

The details:

• Bearman backed his Haas into the Massenet barriers after passing George Russell, blaming bottoming over the radio. The stoppage with under 15 minutes remaining forced teams to abandon their final soft-tyre qualifying simulations.
• Antonelli outpaced both Ferraris even on first-set soft tyres, confirming a genuine step forward for Mercedes. Leclerc and Hamilton both hit traffic on late push laps and failed to improve after the restart, with Leclerc reporting inconsistent braking behavior.
• Only five drivers improved after the red flag, and none moved higher than Carlos Sainz in 12th. A yellow flag triggered by Alex Albon at Ste Devote further compromised the final minutes.
• Russell took fourth, ahead of Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri. Audi showed promising midfield pace with Gabriel Bortoleto seventh and Nico Hulkenberg tenth.
• Isack Hadjar and Lando Norris were both recovering from earlier setbacks, ending up eighth and ninth. Franco Colapinto also hit the hairpin barriers, while Aston Martin remained anchored to the bottom of the timesheets.

What's next:

With limited clean running to reference, expect a tense qualifying session defined by split-second calls on track positioning and traffic avoidance. Antonelli carries the momentum, but Monaco rarely forgives complacency, and Ferrari will be desperate to string together a clean lap to challenge for pole.