Leclerc heads Hamilton during disrupted first practice in Monaco

Charles Leclerc went quickest in the first practice session at the Monaco Grand Prix ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton, as Isack Hadjar crashed his Red Bull.

After Mercedes' dominance in the first five races, Ferrari is looking to level the playing field after the return to Europe on the twisty principality street circuit.

Early in the race, local favourite Leclerc, who is the winner of 2024 and runner-up last year, set a quickest lap of one minute 13.978 to give the home fans a moment to enjoy on Friday.

Leclerc was 0.226 seconds faster than Hamilton in the race, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen finishing in third place, 0.513 seconds behind, ahead of the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.

Red Bull’s Hadjar slammed into the safety fencing on the exit of the swimming pool chicane after losing control, walking away unhurt.

Fernando Alonso also went off in his Aston Martin near the end of the session, damaging the front end of his car.

Aston Martin said that the driver was not guilty of the incident, adding that the car is difficult to drive and the brakes locked.

Team representative Pedro de la Rosa said: "What we have right now is a very difficult car and drivers doing their best and doing an incredible job to drive the car in a reliable and safe way.

"I don't really know exactly what happened. It was rear locking but I haven't been able to look at the data and I haven't spoken to Fernando (yet).

"He let go of the brakes just to recover, otherwise it would have been a full spin, so he did really well to come out of that with just a little broken front wing endplate.

"It is all part of the same problem, the drivability and predictability of the car on braking."