2025 Monaco Grand Prix – Friday

Monaco, 23 May 2025 – Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber opened its Monaco Grand Prix campaign with a productive day of running on the iconic street circuit. The team focused on gathering crucial setup data and evaluating the available tyre compounds in preparation for one of the most technically demanding races of the year.

For Gabriel, it marked his debut on the tight and twisting streets of Monte Carlo in a Formula 1 car—an intense but valuable learning experience. With overtaking notoriously difficult in Monaco, all eyes are now on refining the setup ahead of Saturday’s all-important qualifying session.
 

Nico Hulkenberg (car number 27):
FP1: 12th / 1:12.979 (30 laps)
FP2: 16th / 1:12.262 (32 laps)

"It was a decent and trouble-free Friday overall. I felt quite comfortable in the car right from the beginning of FP1, which is particularly important on a tight street circuit like Monaco. We found a good baseline setup, and now it's all about extracting the right insights from the data to finetune a few areas overnight. As expected, the field is incredibly tight, so even small improvements can make a significant difference."

 

Gabriel Bortoleto (car number 5):
FP1: 18th / 1:13.470 (29 laps)
FP2: 14th / 1:12.234 (29 laps)

“It was my first experience driving in Monaco in a Formula One car, and it was just insane. The adrenaline through the run here is so high—you have such a big car on a small track and you’re pushing to the limit, constantly close to the walls. It’s unreal, it’s so different from every other category I’ve run here before and I’m really enjoying it. Overall, today was positive—we made some progress, and I'm becoming increasingly confident with the car. No one is fully at the limit yet; you don't want to risk too much before qualifying. I'm getting up to speed quickly, and FP2 was especially good for me. As always, we need to look carefully at the data tonight to understand where we can improve: it's going to be tight again this weekend, but if we put a good car together and I deliver my best driving, I believe we can achieve another good result in qualifying.”