Ferrari top Mercedes and Red Bull in final practice

2017 Monaco Grand Prix third practice

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The Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen set the pace ahead of Mercedes and Red Bull in final preparations for qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix.

As laptimes continued to fall and teams favouring the ultra soft tyres once more, it was Ferrari who looked strongest around the Monte Carlo streets with Vettel setting the fastest time with a 1’12.395.

Kimi Raikkonen was second quickest, three tenths slower than his team mate, with Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo all within a second of Vettel’s ultimate pace.

With no running on Friday, drivers were quick to make the most of their final track time before qualifying in warm and sunny conditions.

Vettel set the fastest time on the ultra softs, while team mate Kimi Raikkonen only just avoided the barriers at Antony Noghes. Verstappen put Red Bull ahead of Mercedes, before Valtteri Bottas improved to

Traffic frustrated a number of drivers, with Kevin Magnussen offending Esteban Ocon by holding up the Force India driver at the same corner.

With just under ten minutes remaining, Esteban Ocon clipped the inside barrier on the exit of the Swimming Pool and slammed into the tyre wall in a carbon copy of Max Verstappen’s shunt from 2016.

The car was quickly removed allowing teams to attempt one final qualifying simulation run, but left Force India with a race against the clock to get Ocon’s car ready for qualifying.

There were no improvements at the front during the final runs, however. As the session ended, Daniel Ricciardo suffered a brake-by-wire failure on his RB13, but was able to safely stop the car at St Devote without striking the barriers.

Toro Rosso continued to show good pace with Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat seventh and eighth quickest respectively.

PositionDriverTeamLap time
1Sebastian VettelFerrari1’12.395
2Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’12.740
3Valtteri BottasMercedes1’12.830
4Max VerstappenRed Bull1’12.940
5Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’13.230
6Daniel RicciardoRed Bull1’13.392
7Carlos SainzToro Rosso1’13.400
8Daniil KvyatToro Rosso1’13.563
9Kevin MagnussenHaas1’13.596
10Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren1’13.805
11Sergio PerezForce India1’13.936
12Jenson ButtonMcLaren1’13.976
13Esteban OconForce India1’14.072
14Felipe MassaWilliams1’14.072
15Nico HulkenbergRenault1’14.283
16Romain GrosjeanHaas1’14.547
17Lance StrollWilliams1’14.675
18Jolyon PalmerRenault1’15.164
19Pascal WehrleinSauber1’15.291
20Marcus EricssonSauber1’15.863

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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12 comments on “Ferrari top Mercedes and Red Bull in final practice”

  1. That’s blisteringly fast, the lap times here this year are insane

    1. Daniel Ricciardo 1:13.622 for pole last year. So everyone down to Stoff are faster…

      1. knoxploration
        27th May 2017, 11:41

        So apparently all McLaren needed to be have won last year’s championship was to be allowed to race on this year’s rules a year early. ;-)

        1. LOLZ … sounds reasonable!

        2. They would still have to finish the race ;)

    2. Considering Monaco is partly resurfaced and smoother, and as always there’s the odd kerb that’s been re-profiled it’s actually an expected turn of speed.

  2. nelson piquet
    27th May 2017, 11:15

    lovely picture

  3. Ok, it seems that Mercedes corrected course and now are ~0.4 sec behind (assuming no playing with fuel loads and engine modes). That’s about the region they normally gain with their “quali engine mode”.

    This quali can get exciting!

    1. @ifelix Their Q-mode is something in the engine, it won’t make them much faster on a track like Monaco.

  4. So much consistency by McLaren…

  5. Poor Williams

  6. Ian Laidler (@)
    27th May 2017, 12:03

    I was surprised to see that Charlie only implemented the VSC while Ocon’s car was extracted from the barriers, there must have been at least 10 marshal’s on the track ….. given that the FIA is continually bleating on about safety that must surely of been a Red Flag incident.

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