Lewis Hamilton has welcomed the prospect of early Principality pacesetters Ferrari joining Mercedes and Red Bull in the fight at the front for the Monaco Grand Prix.
For the first time since 2019, Ferrari topped a dry-weather practice session on Thursday in an unexpected one-two in second practice led by Monaco's own Charles Leclerc on Thursday with their SF21 appearing particularly well suited to the sinuous nature of the legendary street circuit layout.
With the Monaco's unique Friday 'rest' day for F1 giving teams and drivers an extra 24 hours to mull over the results of Thursday and, more crucially, hone their car set-ups for the resumption of track action on Saturday morning, the usual guessing games ahead of Saturday's qualifying running as to the true pecking order ramp up.
"The Ferraris are really strong," said Hamilton, who finished third fastest in second practice.
"Surprising to see them improve so much, but it's great - it means more competition."
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'We look close to being a genuine threat'
The start of the 2021 season has been dominated by an epic duel between Mercedes' Hamilton and Red Bull's Max Verstappen. Ferrari have been an improved force so far after a wretched 2020 when they slumped to a 40-year low sixth in the championship, but last competed for poles and race wins two seasons ago.
Monaco, however, is very much not a standard F1 circuit.
While encouraged by the Scuderia's start to F1's showpiece event, Leclerc, who has yet to finish a home race in either F2 or F1 after four attempts, admitted he was "not yet" convinced things were entirely as they seemed.
"I want to wait until Saturday for now," said Leclerc. "It's looking good but for now, it's looking a bit too good to believe it! So let's wait and see. Saturday we will know exactly where we are in qualifying and then we will go from there for the race.
Team-mate Carlos Sainz, who was consistently quick in both sessions, was also cautiously optimistic.
"We definitely look very close to being a genuine threat," he admitted. "But we need to wait until FP3. Things change a lot from Thursday to Saturday here.
"Everyone runs different fuel loads, different set-ups and every driver pushes differently on Thursday. Some push more, others prefer to sandbag and go more little by little.
"So I think there are still more things to check."
Interestingly, Hamilton described himself as a driver who likes to build his momentum through the elongated Monaco weekend.
"For me personally, it might be different for other people, it's always a track where you just need to walk before you run," said the three-time Monaco victor.
"But you've got to do that quickly, obviously."
Describing the famous "rapid" wall-lined lap as "absolutely mesmerising" as ever, Hamilton added: "It's got really high grip this year for some reason. They've redone the surface for most of the track so there's a lot of grip.
"The car is good, we've made some decent steps for the balance of the car, and I'm generally really happy."
Although the scale of Ferrari's Thursday advantage over Mercedes and Red Bull - four tenths of a second - on Thursday could prove to be a red herring, the Scuderia certainly appear poised for their most competitive weekend for some time.