Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, Monaco, 2018

Hamilton and Vettel say they couldn’t have beaten Ricciardo

2018 Monaco Grand Prix

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Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull was unbeatable in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, said Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.

The Red Bull driver was quickest in all three practice sessions and all three stages of qualifying. Vettel qualified two-tenths of a second behind him and Hamilton was another two tenths behind.

Hamilton said he couldn’t have got any more out of his Mercedes.

“It was a really good session,” he told Channel 4. “I gave it everything that I could, we just couldn’t catch them.

“Even with a perfect lap we couldn’t catch the Red Bulls. They [had] just [a] little bit more performance, particularly in the last section.”

“I had a really good first lap [in Q3], the second one I went all out. And I was up for a period of time, and I just wasn’t able to hold it.

“I didn’t make any mistakes or anything like that, the time was just disappearing as I was going through the lap. I was trying to hold onto it. I gave it everything I could.”

Vettel also doubted his car was quick enough for pole position.

“I was pretty happy with the last shot I had,” said the Ferrari driver. “Maybe there was half a tenth but not enough to put Daniel under threat so well done to him.”

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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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