Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of a third Monaco Grand Prix victory were dealt a potentially terminal blow when he failed to reach the top ten shoot-out in qualifying. Here’s the team radio highlights from Saturday.
Third practice
Jolyon Palmer had to make up for lost time after missing most of second practice.
Palmer: “Little bit of oversteer in high speed.”
Palmer: “Losing rear grip.”
To Kvyat: “Remember we have new brakes.”
To Vandoorne: “That A4 change during the lap looks good, let’s try that again.”
Palmer: “Slightly improved I feel like the grip is worse than before with the used tyres. A little bit better front-end in low-speed.”
Mercedes seemed to have better pace in final practice having struggled on Thursday afternoon.
Bottas: “Turn eight, anything I can do?”
“You’re actually quicker there. Not much we can see at the moment. So it’ll be Strat 12.”
The Virtual Safety Car was deployed after Esteban Ocon crashed. At the end of the session Daniel Ricciardo skidded down the escape road at Mirabeau.
To Ricciardo: “You can use the short cut across the chicane.”
To Verstappen: “Virtual Safety Car has ended, Max.”
Ricciardo: “The pedal went to the floor.”
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Qualifying
The other Force India driver flirted with the wall in Q1.
Perez: “I clip a little bit the wall.”
Hamilton: “Rears overheating.”
Hamilton was already in danger of failing to make the cut for Q3 when Stoffel Vandoorne’s crash sealed his fate.
To Raikkonen: “OK the gap to Bottas in front is seven seconds. Just be aware their first laps are usually five to six seconds slower than ours.”
Hamilton: “Got no grip, Bono. Something is wrong with the car.”
Sainz: “Still too much understeer first time lap. But let’s keep it like this.”
Mercedes’ estimate of how many more chances Hamilton would get turned out to be slightly optimistic.
To Hamilton: “So you can’t afford to back off too much. We need to get all these laps in.”
Hamilton: “I’ve got traffic. There is so much wrong with the car.”
“OK Lewis. You’re only going to get one more bite of the cherry.”
Magnussen: “Lewis held me up so badly.”
Vandoorne: “I crashed, sorry.”
“Copy. Turn the car fully off, Stoffel, if you’re OK.”
Hamilton: “That’s me out. That’s me out, right?”
“Yeah affirm Lewis, sorry about that mate. Yep, toasted now.”
Kimi Raikkonen was characteristically undemonstrative after taking his first pole position for almost nine years.
Verstappen: “Can you please check what’s happening with the tyres because I’m losing a lot of front grip.”
“It’s pole Kimi, it’s pole.”
Raikkonen: “Ah good, thank you guys.”
“Great job, well done.”
Button: “It’s strange it lost a bit of grip there. Especially rear end. So little bit of a shame but P9 after seven months off, not too bad.”
“Yeah that’s a good effort to get into Q3, good effort.”
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Phylyp (@phylyp)
27th May 2017, 19:14
Kimi really needs to learn to control his emotions.
/s
Palle (@palle)
27th May 2017, 19:46
Yes, he could learn something from the boy, who cried when Kimis race was destroyed last time:-)
BobW
27th May 2017, 23:52
He should cry after taking pole?