Leclerc doubles up as Ricciardo becomes the first to crash

Leclerc, who is looking to bounce back on home soil after losing the lead of the world championship last time out in Spain, ended up just 0.044s ahead of Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz. 

Nearly four-tenths behind Leclerc was Sergio Perez, who headed Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen by a tenth. 

Lando Norris was fifth ahead of George Russell, whose Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton ended up only 12th after a difficult session. 

Hamilton had been complaining about his Mercedes bouncing severely during  opening practice, and the seven-time world champion’s fortunes didn’t improve in FP2. 

The Briton was frustrated by traffic as he struggled to get in a clean lap on the soft tyre, before a lock up caused him to take a trip down the Mirabeau escape road. 

Pierre Gasly, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Tuki Tsunoda completed the rest of the top 10. 

Second practice was punctuated when Ricciardo hit the barriers at the swimming pool chicane, becoming the first driver to crash this weekend. 

Ricciardo lost control of his McLaren at the entry to the corner, smashed into the barriers on the left-hand side before coming to rest at Piscine. 

While the under-pressure Ricciardo was unhurt in the incident, the same couldn’t be said for his McLaren, which suffered heavy damage.