The home hero led a surprise Ferrari 1-2 in Thursday afternoon’s second practice ൲session around Monte Carlo’s iconic streets, finishing FP2 0.112s clear of teammate Carlos Sainz.

Leclerc, who was sidelined for virtually the whole of FP1 with a gearbox issue, end✨ed up almost 0.4s clear of world champion Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was fourth.

Despite making a promising start to the weekend, Leclerc remains cautious about Ferrari’s chances of fighting f♊or pole position and the win.

“I was quite surprised that it ended that way because here especially, it’s very important to do 🌟as many laps as we can,” Leclerc explained. “Unfortunately with the issue I had in FP1, I had only done four laps.

"I felt quite at ease with the ca▨r in FP2. I managed to put that lap [together] and there is still a bit of margin.

“But on the otไher hand, I’m sure that Red Bull and Mercedes have mor💎e margin than we have, so we shouldn’t get carried away too much.

“We have one day tomorrow to work hard, and let’s see wher🔯e we end up.”

Asked if he is as optimistic as the times suggest, Leclerc r👍eplied: “Not yet, I want to wait untilไ Saturday for now.

"It’s looking good, but for now it’s looki༺ng a little bit too good to believe it. Let’s wait and see, Saturday we will know exactly where we are in qualifying and we will go from there for the race.”

Meanwhile, Sainz believes Ferrari is “very close to being a genuine threat” to Mercedes and Red ♛Bull in Monaco.

“I think we need to wait until FP3, because thin🦄gs change a lot from Thursday to Saturday here,” he added.

“There are ꩵsome drivers that stand back a bit on Thursday, just because t🐽hey want to take it easy, and then suddenly on Saturday… Like Lewis always does, he’s super quick.

“So we will see. It’s nice to see at least that we are closer to the front, that we’re actuꦅally playing around there at the front.

“It’s encouraging for the team, and th꧅ere’s some positive signsꦛ that the car in the corners is actually not that bad.”