Charles Leclerc said Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull's Max Verstappen both looked "very strong" during Friday practice in Monaco as he predicted a "very tight" battle for pole position between the leaders at his home Grand Prix.
Tipped as the favourites for victory on the Principality's street circuit by their key rivals even before the race weekend had started, Ferrari appeared to confirm that status by finishing first and second fastest in both of Friday's practice sessions.
Leclerc and Hamilton paced one session apiece, with the latter ahead by a tenth in the quicker second hour of running, as Ferrari go in search of their first pole position of the season on Saturday to set up a shot at their first Grand Prix win since October 2024.
Verstappen proved their closest challengers to finish within two tenths of their pace, but championship leaders Mercedes - who have claimed all five Grand Prix poles and wins so far in 2026 - were 0.3s behind.
McLaren, meanwhile, unexpectedly struggled throughout Friday a year on from Lando Norris' victory at the circuit and trailed a full second behind the Ferraris in both sessions.
Leclerc said he struggled with the brakes on his SF-26 throughout the day and so was pleased to still end the day in the mix at the front with Hamilton and Verstappen.
"Max has been very strong. Red Bull have been very strong and Lewis has been very strong," said Leclerc after 0.168s covered the top three.
"At the end of the day, it's not been a disastrous day. We are very close to Lewis in FP2. I'm not so worried but it's going to be a tough qualifying for sure, and it will be very tight.
"If we can do a step forward with the brakes, it can help us for the fight for pole."
Leclerc twice ran off track during the opening hour of running, including on his very first lap out of the pits at Mirabeau, and said: "We are facing quite a few issues on the brakes on my side, so we are trying to fix those.
"The confidence is not at the highest level at the moment. Apart from that, it's a track I love and I'm sure if we manage to fix those [issues] for tomorrow it will be a good step forward.
"Unfortunately, since Canada, I have been struggling a bit so we are trying to find solutions. I hope we do for tomorrow and, if so, I don't doubt we will do a step forward."
Only one driver per team conducts a TV interview at the end of Friday on a non-Sprint weekend and, with Leclerc doing the honours at his home event, that meant pacesetter Hamilton's thoughts on the day came via Ferrari's end-of-day press release.
Hamilton said: "It's been a positive day overall and the car felt quite good right from the first laps.
"The team did a solid job with the changes we made between the two sessions and we were able to work through our programme without any major issues.
"Monaco is always a very different challenge, with the bumps and the close proximity of the barriers, so it's not easy to find the right balance and put everything together. There is still performance to be found and tonight we'll focus on the details, because the margins are very small here and there's plenty of work to do ahead of qualifying."
On the evidence of Friday's running, Mercedes appear to be firmly up against it on Saturday to extend their run of pole positions to six races at the start of F1's new era in a qualifying session that often largely dictates the results of Sunday's race around the narrow street venue.
And while not surprised to see Ferrari leading the way on a slow-speed circuit that plays to their cornering strengths, George Russell said the opening day had been even more challenging than the Silver Arrows had anticipated.
"We expected Ferrari to be the guys to beat," said Russell, who finished a tenth quicker than title-leading team-mate Kimi Antonelli in an improved second practice showing from the Briton.
"A lot of people thought that was just chat but, clearly, they are the team to beat. Red Bull have also been a bit of a surprise for us.
"We knew out of the races so far this was going to be our most challenging.
"It's probably been slightly more challenging than we would have hoped but we did make some good improvements from FP1 into FP2.
"We need to make the same step overnight and I don't think we nailed it today. So there is room to improve, but definitely Ferrari are the team."
Meanwhile, McLaren had a challenging day with Norris suffering a likely power unit-related issue which cost him 45 minutes of crucial track time in second practice.
Norris, who won last year's Monaco Grand Prix, stated it was a "tricky day" and the car "simply turned off".
"We're clearly off the pace and need to find time all across the lap. Frustrating to lose track time today, as that's always important here in Monaco," he said.
"We'll work hard overnight to try and get more performance out of the car, but realistically it's going to be difficult to compete at the front of the field this weekend based on where we are compared to the competition."
McLaren were over one second behind the pace-setting Ferraris in both practice sessions, which Norris and Oscar Piastri are not surprised about.
"It felt ok just not as speedy as we would like, unfortunately," said Piastri.
"A bit of a difficult one. I think we made a bit of progress for FP2 but we went from a second-and-a-half off to a second off, so it has been a tough day for us for sure. Some things to find overnight, definitely.
"We always expected Ferrari to be quick - and they looked very, very quick as well - but we were hoping we would be a fair bit closer. Let's see what we can try and muster up for tomorrow."
Saturday June 6
9.40am: F3 Sprint
11.15am: Monaco GP Practice Three (session starts at 11.30am)
1.10pm: F2 Sprint
2.15pm: Monaco GP Qualifying build-up
3pm: MONACO GP QUALIFYING*
Sunday June 7
6.50am: F3 Feature Race
8.30am: F2 Feature Race
10.50am: Porsche Supercup
12.30pm: Monaco GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
2pm: THE MONACO GRAND PRIX*
4pm: Monaco GP reaction: Chequered Flag*
*Also on Your Site Main Event
Watch the Monaco Grand Prix, the first of six races in eight weeks, live on Your Site F1 this weekend.
