Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, Monaco, 2018

Ricciardo leads Verstappen again after red-flagged session

2018 Monaco Grand Prix second practice

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It was another one-two for Red Bull in the second practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix and once again Daniel Ricciardo led the way.

The session was interrupted for 15 minutes when a drainage cover worked loose on the approach to Mirabeau. Once that had been re-welded into place the session resumed and most drivers headed out to complete their qualifying simulations.

Traffic was inevitably a severe problem but Max Verstappen found enough space to set a best of 1’12.035 on a new set of hyper-soft tyres. Team mate Ricciardo, meanwhile, had opted for older tyres.w

Ricciardo returned to the track later, when the traffic had eased, for a run on new hyper-softs. After three attempts he finally broke the 1’12 barrier, setting a session-topping time of 1’11.841.

Sebastian Vettel was half a second slower in third place, followed by Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes driver did not enjoy his race simulation run on super-soft tyres – the hardest rubber available this weekend – saying his car’s handling felt “unsafe”.

Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas completed another all-Red Bull/Mercedes/Ferrari top six. Behind them the remaining places in the top 10 were filled by the remaining Renault-powered drivers, the McLaren pair splitting the two factory drivers.

On his return to Monaco for the first time since the 2011 Formula Renault 3.5 race, Brendon Hartley was two-hundredths of a second away from a place in the top 10. The Force Indias came next followed by Pierre Gasly in the other Toro Rosso.

Sergey Sirotkin was the quickest of the Williams drivers in 15th place, ahead of the Haas pair and the two Saubers.

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Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
13Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’11.84133
233Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’12.0350.19441
35Sebastian VettelFerrari1’12.4130.57241
444Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’12.5360.69534
57Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’12.5430.70236
677Valtteri BottasMercedes1’12.6420.80138
727Nico HulkenbergRenault1’13.0471.20630
82Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Renault1’13.0771.23640
914Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Renault1’13.1151.27442
1055Carlos Sainz JnrRenault1’13.2001.35934
1128Brendon HartleyToro Rosso-Honda1’13.2221.38147
1211Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’13.3701.52939
1331Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’13.3821.54147
1410Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’13.4101.56932
1535Sergey SirotkinWilliams-Mercedes1’13.5471.70644
1620Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’13.5721.73141
1716Charles LeclercSauber-Ferrari1’13.5751.73445
188Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’13.7631.92237
1918Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’14.0112.17034
209Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’14.1732.33246

Second practice visual gaps

Daniel Ricciardo – 1’11.841

+0.194 Max Verstappen – 1’12.035

+0.572 Sebastian Vettel – 1’12.413

+0.695 Lewis Hamilton – 1’12.536

+0.702 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’12.543

+0.801 Valtteri Bottas – 1’12.642

+1.206 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’13.047

+1.236 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’13.077

+1.274 Fernando Alonso – 1’13.115

+1.359 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’13.200

+1.381 Brendon Hartley – 1’13.222

+1.529 Sergio Perez – 1’13.370

+1.541 Esteban Ocon – 1’13.382

+1.569 Pierre Gasly – 1’13.410

+1.706 Sergey Sirotkin – 1’13.547

+1.731 Kevin Magnussen – 1’13.572

+1.734 Charles Leclerc – 1’13.575

+1.922 Romain Grosjean – 1’13.763

+2.170 Lance Stroll – 1’14.011

+2.332 Marcus Ericsson – 1’14.173

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

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2018 Monaco Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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31 comments on “Ricciardo leads Verstappen again after red-flagged session”

  1. I didnt expext mclaren so high. Lets hope RBR dont crush together. If renault brings a good engine update in canada things might change radically…

    1. On the contrary I thought they’d be ahead of Renault. Though there’s only three-hundredths in it.

  2. The first ever sub-1m12s lap time in Monaco.

  3. Mclaren ad Renault should have a good tussle, seems pretty close. Alonso didn’t seem to get a proper lap in at the end, they appeared to be focused on long runs.

    The Red Bull battle for pole on Saturday is going to be mega, can’t wait! Forza Ricciardo!

    1. And Hulkenberg was slowed down by a TR in the first sector and lose something like 3 or 4 tenths

  4. luckily it’s practice only for Stroll and Ericsson; they might struggle to beat their rookie teammates on Saturday.

    1. True. Both Leclerc and Sirotkin looked much quicker than their teammates. I can understand Ericcson being down on Leclerc, because that Charles fellow is really proving to be something else, but Stroll nearly 0.5s down on Sirotkin is laughable.

      1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
        24th May 2018, 21:57

        The thing is though, Stroll vertically always has had really good starts in the races this year. That is where performance matters. But Monaco, qualifying is often more important I guess.

  5. Great job by Redbull and the lads. I’d love to see both on the podium and Dan finally get that Monaco win that has eluded him so far.

    Renault doing well but I did expect McLaren to be better then where they currently stand. Lewis sounds uncomfortable in the car while Bottas appears to be struggling also. Good job by Hartly…he needs a solid weekend. HASS are nowhere (surprising) as are Williams.

    1. I think Lewis only was uncomfortable on that odd choice of (super)soft, the supersofts are just too hard, likely @homerlovesbeer, I think Mercedes are clearly doing better than last year, it’s just, Red Bull are improves as well, while Ferrari might not have improved so much. But, we’ll see on Saturday I guess.

      1. Or maybe not so odd, if Mercedes drivers really think that today more than 6-7 laps on hypersofts won’t work; so they’ll try to get to Q3 on ultrasofts (and maybe Ferrari too and one of the Red Bulls too?) – I guess they wanted to be able to avoid running long on hypers later in the race, but no such luck.

  6. There is something ominous about the Ferrari engined cars. All the 6 cars are significantly slower than Barcelona. Ferrari already have an additional FIA device on their engine.

    Somehow, I am getting BAR 2005 vibes.

    1. But neither of the other runners have FIA equipment on their cars and the FIA has said their testing and analysis showed nothing outside of the regs. I’m thinking it’s more the mechanical grip just isn’t there with the others and Monaco is not the place to rely only on aero kits.

    2. I don’t remember what happened to BAR in 2005… I thought it was they ran light (below the minimum weight) for a race and their results were disqualified for the race. I don’t remember though… it was pretty long back.

      This might actually be a bigger issue. If Ferrari are caught guilty of illegal oil burning and tricking FIA’s devices to use more electrical power, then there could be some disastrous consequences for them.

    3. Well vettel went faster than Mercedes… And haas doesn’t have a top 5 driver. Redbull just have the best car for this track (at least in fp1 and fp2)

  7. Seems I was right to caveat my optimism over Williams’ prospects after FP1…

  8. Positions 7 to 18 are so close it will be whoever gets a clean lap that gets into Q3 during qualifying

    1. Yes. Crazy close. It looks like a spec series… Great driver talent indicator.

  9. I wonder if redbull will fill the front row but not make it to lap 2.

  10. Ricciardo is probably going for pole. He is clearly the faster one on these streets.
    On one of his attempts he had traffic of two cars on the first sector, lost two tenths but was faster on the other two.
    When he got a clean lap, those two tenths were the difference between them.

    And Verstappen still has to crash at least once. It’s his signature at Monte Carlo.

    1. Ricciardo generally seems to have the upper hand in Monaco. It will be a cracking battle between them for pole though.

      It’s crazy.. this is probably strongest chance for a Red Bull one-two in the hybrid era. They look significantly quicker than both Ferrari and Mercedes. The battle for the last step of the podium will be a good one too between Hamilton and Vettel.

      I have a feeling this might be one of the better Monaco grand prix’s in recent history… now.. all we need is some rain on Sunday.

      1. Explain, why he clearly is the faster one..
        Lets wait until saturday. Last year Ricciardo was half a second behind his teammate. Still some sessions to go and mercedes and ferrari also will be a lot closer.

    2. I wouldn’t bet against Verstappen here. Dont think he put 3 good sections in 1 lap yet.
      Will be a cracker on Saturday for sure!

      1. A best lap time was calculated across both Verstappen and Ricciadro’s best sector times added up. Ricciardo was still faster than Verstappen by almost two tenths!!!!

      2. I wouldn’t bet against Verstappen here.

        Bet against him winning or crashing? LOL

        I’d love to see him do well. However, I’m expecting him to do something stupid before the weekend is out.

  11. I love the in-car cam shots at Monaco – it’s total bonkers. This year, however, the Todt Thong blocks too much of the bonkers. LM’s lame thong graphics overlays don’t improve the eyesore. Also miss the G-force meter graphic.

    Oh well…hopefully the tacky fake glamour and lap records can compensate for the stretch-limo racing under Todt’s undies.

    Be great if the RBR boys can qualify 1-2 and finish the race without requiring a multi-333

    1. @jimmi-cynic

      multi-333

      Nice one!

    2. The halo makes no difference to on board tcam, doesn’t block the road at all and you can see the drivers hands too.

  12. This is looking to be like a fantastic Qualy-Race! I was sceptical about Red Bull for their chances here at Monaco, but so far, hopefully for them and the championship, we see a real hard fight between the Red Bulls. I can feel the tension in the Red Bull garage now with one of their boys most likely to win this or at least get pole. Its theirs to loose.

  13. What happened to verstappen investigation for reversing into on coming cars? I would have though that’s an instant penalty.

    1. Not for Max. You should know that by now.

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