{"id":718554,"date":"2026-06-06T07:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T07:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/718554\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T07:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T07:38:12","slug":"f1-2026-monaco-grand-prix-practice-isack-hadjar-crash-oscar-piastri-struggles-video-highlights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/718554\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 2026 Monaco Grand Prix practice | Isack Hadjar crash, Oscar Piastri struggles; video, highlights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar Piastri<\/a> and his McLaren<\/a> team are at a loss to explain their disappointing pace on the opening day of practice for the Monaco Grand Prix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Aussie finished Friday practice in seventh, with teammate Lando Norris<\/a> buried down in 19th on the time sheet, stymied by mechanical gremlins.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri during practice for the Monaco Grand Prix.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Ferrari<\/a> duo of Lewis Hamilton<\/a> and home hero Charles Leclerc<\/a> topped the day\u2019s running. Piastri was more than a second slower.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday was certainly a tough day for the team. We\u2019re not where we want to be, and the gap to the front is larger than we had hoped for,\u201d Piastri said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made some small steps forward between the first and second practice sessions, but we\u2019re still a second off the pace, which shows how much work we have to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to go through the data and find some answers overnight because, as it stands, we are simply not quick enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no single solution that will turn things around completely, but we will explore every option available to find performance and be in a more competitive position for the rest of the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Qualifying is of utmost importance in Monaco. Since 2000, no winner has started lower than third on the grid, and most have started on the front row.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Piastri and his McLaren team were off the pace on Friday in the principality.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

McLaren is celebrating its 1000th grand prix in the principality<\/a>, which coincidentally is where founder Bruce McLaren first entered a team under his own name in 1966. The car he drove that weekend is in Monaco, and has been driven in demonstration laps by two-time world champion Mika Hakkinen, who won both his titles with the team.<\/p>\n

Norris is defending Monaco champion. Piastri finished third.<\/p>\n

Red Bull ace first Monaco victim<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, Max Verstappen<\/a>\u2019s Red Bull<\/a> teammate Isack Hadjar became the unforgiving circuit\u2019s first victim of the weekend when he crashed in opening practice.<\/p>\n

At the second part of the swimming pool section \u2013 the track literally diverts around a swimming pool \u2013 Hadjar lost the rear-end and slid nose-first into the barrier.<\/p>\n

He was uninjured, and his car was quickly craned away as the red flags flew.<\/p>\n

While he took no further part in that opening session, the Red Bull mechanics were able to get the car back on track for the second session hours later.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Isack Hadjar was the first F1 driver to crash during the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix weekend.\u00a0Fox Sports<\/p>\n

Title Antonelli\u2019s \u2018to lose\u2019, says teammate<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, George Russell<\/a> believes the title is his Mercedes<\/a> teammate Kimi Antonelli<\/a>\u2019s \u201cto lose\u201d.<\/p>\n

Russell won the season-opener in Melbourne<\/a>, but the young Italian has since won the past four grands prix in China<\/a>, Japan<\/a>, Miami<\/a> and Canada<\/a>. He is the first driver in the history of the sport to claim his first four grands prix victories on the bounce.<\/p>\n

As a result of Russell\u2019s retirement in Montreal with an engine failure<\/a>, Antonelli leads the championship by 43 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got such a buffer, it feels like you can only keep it or you can lose it. And I think it\u2019s his to lose,\u201d Russell said ahead of practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, my mindset is to enjoy every single race, try and win every single race. I just need to continue being the guy who\u2019s coming out on top, even if he\u2019s the one at the moment who\u2019s getting the results.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems a surprisingly pessimistic take given Monaco is just the sixth of a 22-race season. If Russell was to win each race and have Antonelli finish second, he would re-take the lead of the championship at the Dutch Grand Prix in August.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not taking into account any mechanical unreliability \u2013 Russell\u2019s Montreal engine failure proved the tri-star is not infallible \u2013 or errors on Antonelli\u2019s side of the garage.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

George Russell during practice.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

The silver arrows have dominated the early part of the season. Only for the Miami sprint, where Lando Norris took victory from pole, has a Mercedes not been at the top of the results for a qualifying session or race.<\/p>\n

But on Friday in Monaco, both seem to be a step behind the Ferrari pair.<\/p>\n

There is another hour-long practice session on Saturday evening (AEST), before qualifying begins at midnight. The race will begin at 11pm Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri and his McLaren team are at a loss to explain their disappointing pace on the opening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-718554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}