Daniel Ricciardo dominated the Monaco Grand Prix, taking victory from pole position ahead of Sebastian Vettel despite losing his MGU-K early in the race.
Ricciardo reported a loss of power early in the race, later confirmed by Christian Horner to be a loss of his MGU-K, but held off Sebastian Vettel to take his first win around the Monte Carlo streets and his second win of the season.
Lewis Hamilton took third for Mercedes, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas.
Despite a brief pre-race shower, conditions were dry as the grid lined up for the start of the Monaco Grand Prix.
There was trouble before the formation lap began for Sergey Sirotkin, with a reported wheelnut problem meaning Williams were under investigation for not having all wheels fitted to his car prior to three minutes before the formation lap, later earning him a ten second stop-and-go penalty.
A clean start to the race saw Ricciardo lead from pole ahead of Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen behind.
Brendon Hartley reported first lap contact with Charles Leclerc and damage to his front wing, but was able to proceed without pitting his Toro Rosso.
Williams’s troubles were compounded when Lance Stroll suffered a left front puncture on the second Williams, forcing him to pit early.
Lewis Hamilton was the first of the front runners to pit, switching to ultra-soft tyres on Lap 12 and resuming in sixth place, behind Esteban Ocon’s Force India.
Sebastian Vettel pitted from second place on Lap 16, able to resume without losing position. Red Bull immediately responded, pitting Ricciardo on the very next lap and retaining the lead of the race.
With Ricciardo seemingly comfortable out front, there was drama for the Australian when he suddenly reported a loss of power in his Red Bull on Lap 28, allowing Vettel to close the gap significantly to the leader.
Despite the issue, Ricciardo was able to maintain his advantage and dictate the pace out front. The question became whether the ultra-soft compound tyres of the front runners would last until the end of the race.
Fernando Alonso became the first retirement on Lap 53, pulling off at St Devote complaining of a gearbox problem on his McLaren.
There was late race drama when Charles Leclerc suffered an apparent braking issue into the harbour chicane and crashed into the back of Brendon Hartley’s Toro Rosso, bringing out the Virtual Safety Car.
When the race resumed, Vettel appeared unable to bring his tyres back into life and lost significant ground to the leading Red Bull. Ricciardo comfortably held on to take his first Monaco Grand Prix victory to the delight of the Red Bull team.
Vettel claimed second for Ferrari, ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas followed, with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly sixth and seventh.
Nico Hulkenberg finished eighth for Renault, ahead of Max Verstappen from the back of the grid and Carlos Sainz rounding out the top ten.
2018 Monaco Grand Prix reaction
- Check back shortly for more race reaction
Phylyp (@phylyp)
27th May 2018, 16:10
Good races by Dan (my DOTW), Gasly and Ocon today.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
27th May 2018, 16:13
Also interesting that 3 drivers have each won 2 races thus far!
Phylyp (@phylyp)
27th May 2018, 16:13
3 drivers from 3 teams, in fact.
Frankly
27th May 2018, 18:14
And….. Ver is a goodboy today. No crash. Lols.
Nick (@nick101)
27th May 2018, 18:39
Title of article should have been – ‘Ricciardo wins from pole and Verstappen completes first race this season without spinning, crashing or taking another driver out’!!
lol
Hans (@hanswesterbeek)
27th May 2018, 18:41
Only touched another car one, I think… when he shoved Sainz off track and radioed in to say Sainz cut the chicane. And then went on to cut it himself the next lap :-)
In his first three seasons Verstappen was one of the main reasons to watch F1, always excitement and he kept impressing me. But this year… cringeworthy to say the least. I know it’s a worn-out joke already, but Verstappen’s 2018 definitely gets the Maldonado Seal of Approval :-)
Roel K. (@rj01)
27th May 2018, 20:23
It is easy to put someone down or make fun of him. Last year Max was the promised child of F1 and now the whole world thinks he is the next Maldonado. That will put some pressure on you, especially when you are only 20 years old.
Yes, Max made some terrible errors this season. But today he did quite well I think. Given the fact that everyone says “Monaco is a parade, you cannot overtake”. He went from 20th to 9th and got the fastest lap as well. He did not choose to go the easy way and join the parade like so many other drivers did today. And I like that. Well done Max.
Patrick (@anunaki)
27th May 2018, 16:13
Great race from RIC
Vettel didn’t even try anything. Very disappointing
Phylyp (@phylyp)
27th May 2018, 16:14
I think he was in ‘one in the hand is worth two in the bush’ mode relative to Hamilton, particularly given his graining compared to the much lesser graining on Dan’s tyres, despite his lower power (hence more lateral load through corners).
Ed
27th May 2018, 16:33
And what should Vettel do ? He didn’t have the traction to get close to Ricciardo before the end of the high speed sectors (which aren’t straights).
When the difference in top speed started to kick in, they got to Saint Devote and the chicane after the tunnel.
Ricciardo’s win was in doubt only if his issues increased or maybe a DNF.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
27th May 2018, 16:41
Yeah but Ricciardo was 30 kph slower on the straights… What else do you need?
Vettel also wasn’t there when the VSC ended as he lost 5 seconds (!!) to RIC. Very disappointing effort from him imho.
Ed
27th May 2018, 16:45
Longer straights.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
28th May 2018, 8:41
This is Monaco! Any other race track Daniel would have been history, but not here, winning Monaco is all about being in front, not about being fastest.
Todfod (@todfod)
27th May 2018, 16:38
Vettel had a car nearly 2 seconds a lap faster than Dan when he had his problem, yet he didn’t even look at threatening.. not even in the DRS or the straights. Quite a poor showing from Vettel. There are a lot of drivers that would have made life really more difficult for Dan throughout the race. Maybe he was just focused on racing Hamilton today.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
27th May 2018, 16:50
I don’t think so, not on the tyres the top 5 were running. None of them were able to close the gap enough to the car ahead to make a move, let alone make a move stick. And not even Bottas on the SS could challenge Kimi well enough.
The Red Bull was just the superior car in the corners (which earned them pole) and managed its tyres better (even with Ricciardo possibly carrying more speed into corners to maintain the gap to Vettel. Both Vettel and Hamilton’s tyres has visibly noticeable graining, far more than that on Dan’s.
Ju88sy (@)
27th May 2018, 17:35
Exactly this, Vettel and especially Hamilton were very limited by their tyre strategy today, Hamilton was practically limping round with 20 laps to go and post VSC you could see the issues Vettel had. Both of them drove as good a race as they could do on the conservative strategies decided by the teams.
Montréalais (@)
28th May 2018, 2:07
I firmly agree, @ju88sy, both of them did what they could with what they had. As the Sky commentator said, it indicates that the three tires chosen by Pirelli are equally poor, with glaring faults in each design.
Scary Terry (@hatebreeder)
27th May 2018, 16:59
I think it was because there is a long season ahead and there was no need to take risks. They should move this race towards the end of the season. It will force drivers to attempt passes for points.
Tango (@tango)
27th May 2018, 19:24
And lots more wind and chances for rain
Krommenaas (@krommenaas)
27th May 2018, 17:33
“There are a lot of drivers that would have made life really more difficult for Dan throughout the race” — but none of those other drivers are in contention for the WDC. Vettel was right not to try it on this track. A crash was more likely than a pass.
ricardo alayza
28th May 2018, 2:46
Specially after what he did in Baku
Feuerdrache (@xenomorph91)
27th May 2018, 18:06
If you followed the race, you would have noticed everyone struggled to get even 1s behind another car with tyres of similar age. And with being >1.2 s (thanks to RedBull’s superior car in the corners and dirty air from these cars) behind at the beginning of the short straights, you will not make a pass into any corner on this circuit even with the power advantage Vettel had due to Ricciardo’s MGU-K failure.
With the old cars (pre 2017-era cars) where you could follow others closer, he could have made a move.
anon
28th May 2018, 10:26
@todfod, the thing is, even with a huge pace advantage, the fact that it is so easy to block another car around the Monaco circuit makes it extremely difficult to pass.
One famous example would be that of Coulthard and Bernoldi in 2001, where Coulthard had to start from the back of the grid after an electronics glitch meant the car get stuck in neutral on the grid. Coulthard had a massive pace advantage over Bernoldi – when Bernoldi finally pitted, Coulthard’s times improved by four to five seconds a lap – but, despite several attempts to pass, Bernoldi’s rather firm defence meant he couldn’t pass.
It’s easy to blame the tyres, but I would say it is also rather misleading – Monaco’s always been an extremely difficult circuit for anybody to try making a pass against another driver (they’ve been repeating the same complaints for decades now, irrespective of the chassis formula, engine formula or tyre supplier).
Jere (@jerejj)
27th May 2018, 16:13
Poor Williams.
ZUKMaN
27th May 2018, 16:19
That was probably single race when they had a chance to score points.
Flarg
27th May 2018, 16:24
Utterly dreadful performance from both drivers. And lots of Stroll moaning only helps to lower the teams mood further.
They really need to have serious think whether bags of cash is really worth it over bit less money and talent.
Its almost guaranteed that Kubica would have got his head down, drove clean in a mature way and kept spirits high.
Miani (@miani)
27th May 2018, 16:29
Sirotkin was in a great race (after a great qualifying), he overtook Vandorne at the start and could have ended in the top 10. Unfortunately Williams messed it all again.
BasCB (@bascb)
27th May 2018, 17:08
As @miani mentions, Sirotkin did as best a job as he could have. His qualifying was a great effort. And had he not had the wheel nut issue off the line that got him the stop and go penalty, he would have been able to race right in the middle of the pack.
Won’t argue Stroll with you, that was tragicomical from him.
ColdFly (@)
27th May 2018, 17:25
Great overtake from Stroll on Ericsson though on lap 1!
Credit where credit is due, @bascb.
BasCB (@bascb)
27th May 2018, 17:37
Yeah, that’s true. Another highlight of the race @coldfly
anon
27th May 2018, 18:21
Flarg, as others have noted, it was the team that let Sirotkin down, not the other way around – they were the ones who screwed up on the grid and earned him a penalty that dropped him to the back of the field.
Todfod (@todfod)
27th May 2018, 16:26
@jerejj
I feel bad for Sirotkin. He had a great weekend up until Sunday, where for no fault of his own he got a harsh penalty just before the race. Then he got another problem because the team put radiator ducts while he was serving his penalty. Yet he managed to finish in front of his more experienced teammate.
I also feel terrible for the Williams team that they have a clown like Stroll driving for them.
Gary
27th May 2018, 16:29
At what point does Laurence Stroll decide it is not worth investing $35 million per year in £д₦¢€ $₮₹0££‘s F1 career?
Todfod (@todfod)
27th May 2018, 16:34
He’ll probably stop shelling out money the day Lance becomes the laughing stock of the paddock… oh wait..
Phylyp (@phylyp)
27th May 2018, 16:29
This didn’t earn him a penalty, IIRC, @todfod , it was investigated but nothing came of it.
Yeah, the 10s penalty was a bitter blow. Deserved, but a shame, nonetheless.
Todfod (@todfod)
27th May 2018, 17:31
@phylyp
Aah.. You’re right. Sorry, I got confused between Hartley’s penalty and Sirotkin’s.
Paul A (@paul-a)
27th May 2018, 19:06
I disagree, strongly. Why penalize the driver? What did the driver do wrong? How does it help the sport? I fully understand the safety aspects of the “3 minute wheel on” rule. It was “reported” that the team *were* on time until a crossed thread happened; given the lack of space on the grid at Monaco, they had to run back to the pits for a special tool. OK, screw-up. OK fine the team ten thousand euros, whatever. But this is *not* the driver’s fault. Why penalize the driver? A 10 second drive-through is a race killer — and for goodness sake, this was “sitting on the grid before the formation lap” — nothing, zero, zilch, nada to do with the driver racing his race.
Green Flag (@greenflag)
27th May 2018, 20:49
It’s a penalty against the team. The driver is a team member. They win together and lose together. Geddit?
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
27th May 2018, 16:17
From now the Monaco will be described as a race that you can win with a broken engine. I knew overtaking is hard here but even I was surprised.
RobD76
27th May 2018, 16:29
That is exactly what I thought!
José Lopes da Silva
27th May 2018, 16:48
The 1992 race finish was way more unbalanced.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
27th May 2018, 20:25
@ivan-vinitskyy Have you never seen the Senna vs Mansell fight over the last few laps of Monaco? Mansell was 2 seconds a lap faster on fresh tyres and even then he couldn’t get past. Think it was 1992
Also the race where Coulthard was stuck behind back marker Bernoldi (fighting for position). He was stuck there for half the race in a McLaren which was at the time still designed by Newey and thus the car to have for Monaco (if it didn’t break down). Coulthard’s car was probably more like 3 to 4 seconds a lap faster than that of Bernoldi.
fast
27th May 2018, 22:52
The current cars are too big. Passing was always risky at Monaco, but it seems impossible now. Or at least not worth the risk and in this era of engineers almost driving the cars, not something worth trying. On the other hand, both F2 races were quite eventful, with a lot of crazy moves at crazy places and even a successful if not skillful one at Rascasse. Proving that real racing is still possible at Monaco, just not in an F1 car.
@HoHum (@hohum)
28th May 2018, 1:10
+1
Matthijs (@matthijs)
28th May 2018, 9:02
The cars are not too big. Two meters wide is quite common in F1’s history. Or do you mean too long?
ricardo alayza
28th May 2018, 2:57
For Monaco, besides DRS, slower car in front should stay in one single lane while on DRS sector.
pantherjag (@pantherjag)
28th May 2018, 9:58
I suspect the media and horner were overstating just how detrimental the issue on Ricciardo car was to his pace.
Within a few laps drivers adjust and adapt to minimise such issues, the engineers adjust the engine software to minimise the effect and coupled with a track where engine power is not considered important I reckon the issue was maybe costing him 5-7 tenths at most.
Given he had around 5 tenths in hand over Vettel in raw pace anyway going by end of first stint I don’t think Daniel was really ever in danger
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
27th May 2018, 16:17
A nightmare of a race to watch if you had F1 TV, at least from my end. Constant logging out, meant I had to restart the stream so many times and even so sometimes it didn’t work at all… went back to illegal streams one third of the way in the race… so much for trying to do things right…
lucho19 (@lucho19)
27th May 2018, 16:29
Same here. I almost missed the race start if not for a great stream I found before.
F1TV service really sucks right now (USA)
Phylyp (@phylyp)
27th May 2018, 16:57
@lucho19 – which broadcast does the “other” stream show? Sky, or something else? Asking for a friend.
SteveR
27th May 2018, 20:08
Sky.
Boomerang
27th May 2018, 17:07
Same with me, I canceled my subscription because of it.
Andrew in Atlanta
27th May 2018, 19:52
Glad it wasn’t just me, had to finally quit and watch the replay. And the replay wasn’t much better, audio was all over the place and dropped whole conversations. At least last race the audio worked perfectly on the replay.
I’m working on how to word another email to F1TV to complain about the service. I didn’t have access to broadcast this morning to watch on ABC and assumed they had fixed the problem. This week was a different problem and seemed to be constantly interrupting the webpage loading to remind me of their new cookie policy. I HATE the alerts from every page reminding me the cookie policies have changed due to EU law, I get it and stop. Every signing in to watch triggered that alert and then I was logged back out again. All live, the steam loaded fine in replay but the audio was atrocious. Thought it was a great deal but definitely not renewing at this rate and might see about cancel and partial refund.
Lancer033 (@lancer033)
27th May 2018, 19:53
As someone that’s been wanting F1 to come out with a streaming service for years now, i’ve got to say i’m a bit disappointed. It’s the right idea, just not ready for prime time yet. Where are all the extra camera angles and such? What about the F2 races? What about all the archive footage they have? I didn’t find anything that wasn’t on either their youtube channel or website for free. An unreliable stream that doesn’t give me any options beyond what ESPN is showing isn’t worth keeping. I feel bad for canceling it because i do think they’ve got the right idea, i just want more from it than they’re giving now.
JC
27th May 2018, 16:17
Has anyone confirmed it was the MGU-K? Sounded more like he only had 6 gears…
Phylyp (@phylyp)
27th May 2018, 16:20
Christian Horner himself said it was the -K that failed on C4, right at the chequered flag.
BasCB (@bascb)
27th May 2018, 17:10
He actually mentioned it during the last lap on the lap before that @phylyp, but indeed he did confirm it
Phylyp (@phylyp)
27th May 2018, 17:15
Cheers, @bascb
Todfod (@todfod)
27th May 2018, 16:27
It was an MGU-K failure along with only 6 gears available to him. At least that’s what I could gather from Daniel’s statement.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
27th May 2018, 16:44
Thanks, @todfod , I’d switched off before I heard the part about the gears.
Hugh (@hugh11)
27th May 2018, 16:22
Great drive from Danny Ric, MGU-K dead and also had just 6 gears to use (though if it was 7 and 8 missing then that’s not too disastrous, but still, another issue).
Also shoutout to Ocon, who had great pace all weekend especially compared to Perez, and Gasly and Hulkenberg who pulled off their strategies brilliantly running to the pace.
Sumedh
27th May 2018, 16:23
Well done to Ricciardo.
But Horner comparing it to Michael’s 5th gear drive in Barcelona is a bit hyperbole.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
27th May 2018, 16:27
Particularly given the track Michael’s problem occurred on, versus this one :-)
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
27th May 2018, 16:34
I’m sure Dan will remind his boss that he said that, when he’s negotiating his contract!
ColdFly (@)
27th May 2018, 17:29
Didn’t leave ‘Schumi’ leave at the end of that season to Ferrari, @bullfrog?
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
27th May 2018, 20:10
@bullfrog This season it looks like Max is negotiating Dan’s contract.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
27th May 2018, 20:28
Especially since Schumachers 5th gear thing wasn’t that impressive anyway. Schumacher himself said it actually helped him. Only 5 drivers or so finished that race and that stuck gear helped him stay on the track.
Chris
27th May 2018, 21:48
Driving only with one gear on a high speed track, how can’t that not be impressive?. And get your facts straight. 10 people finished that race
K
28th May 2018, 1:21
Yeah it helped him lose the lead. Also it was 1994 not 1995 and resulted in Williams first win with Damon Hill that year after the death of Senna.
Jonathan
28th May 2018, 4:13
Really?
anon
28th May 2018, 10:53
@patrickl, care to provide a source for your claims?
After all, as Chris notes, for a start there were twice the number of drivers who finished the race than you claim, so already I’m starting to question how accurate your post is (not to mention that, at the time those problems occurred, there were still more than 20 cars running on track).
I’ve never seen any quotes or any footage where Schumacher supposedly credited being stuck in 5th gear with him being able to stay on track.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
27th May 2018, 16:29
Man what a fun race.
From now on they should disable race leaders MGU-K if they start to pull away..
That created nice fun in the back.
Max V managed not to crash and provide some entertainment…
My favourite Vettel managed … Yeah manged that was about all he did.
I would like to think Hamilton in that seat sould make a pass. But in reality Red Bull was faster in the corners, better on tires and even when 160bhp down on power perfectly able to win the race.
What would have been with Max V in second place, chasing a failing Daniel?
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
27th May 2018, 16:48
I recon team orders. RedBull owed Ricciardo a Monaco win and given the Baku debacle they would have quickly put Verstappen on a leash and use him as a buffer for Daniel. Verstappen might not have listened, though, and then crashed with his teammate again… we might have missed out on that I guess!
ColdFly (@)
27th May 2018, 17:32
So an ‘MGU-K Reduction System’ (MGUKRS) if you get more than 1 sec ahead ;)
@jureo
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
27th May 2018, 19:02
https://youtu.be/bhO1aMVLhas?t=2s
mog
27th May 2018, 16:30
Did Danny Ric get the grand chelem? I missed who got the flap in the racr
Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
27th May 2018, 16:39
I believe so yes
Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
27th May 2018, 16:42
Pretty sure Max got FL.
BasCB (@bascb)
27th May 2018, 17:11
as @braketurnaccelerate mentions, it was Max who got the fastest lap.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
27th May 2018, 17:55
Do not think so. Grand Chelem = Pole Position, Fastest Lap, lead the race all laps, Win. I think VER got the FL in the end + RAI crossed the finish line as a race leader 1-2 times. Most Grand Chelems were missed because of the lead the race all laps part. Schumacher managed only 5 in his entire carreer, although the races where he got the PP, FL, WIN are way more than 5.
Andrew in Atlanta
27th May 2018, 19:54
Sky and the F1 app both showed DR leading every lap. Only thing he didn’t get was fast lap as MV loaded up with the hypers at the end with low fuel.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
27th May 2018, 21:33
Ah, you’re right: they pitted the same lap, so RIC never lost the lead. That moment I reckon I switched attention from the race to something else – some car game on my PC, so mixed things up.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
27th May 2018, 16:37
Ricciardo: 3rd in the championship with 72 points and 2 wins
Verstappen: 6th with 35 points, only 1 podium and 6 crashes.
Ricciardo could have been in the mix with Hamilton and Vettel for the lead in the championship if it wasn’t for Max at Baku. Meanwhile Alonso is only 3 points behind Max and could have overtaken him in the standings today… in a McLaren… ouch.
As Rosberg said post-race: RedBull must be very, very close to running out of patience with Verstappen now.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
27th May 2018, 17:08
@jeffreyj
Verstappen has been heavily at fault for virtually all of then, I agree there. But in Baku, both drivers were given a reprimand and neither was deemed more responsible than the other. I think Verstappen was more to blame, But Ricciardo certainly has to take some responsibility. If an incident was very one sided in terms of the blame being far more on one driver than the other, they no doubt will have had some punishment this late into the race. First corner incidents sometimes are less harshly dealt with though.
But I do agree that Ricciardo could be in the championship fight if it wasn’t for these. I think he has basically lost the same amount of points as Bottas did in Baku. So would likely still be ahaed of Bottas if neither had retired once. But not by much. But if we think things this way, Bottas certainly didn’t have the luck Ricciardo did. As Bottas lost a win and 7 points in China due to Toro Rosso’s crashing. And this basically was the reason (including Verstappen being terrible) why he managed to climb from 6th to 1st. So he’s probably got around 17 points due to luck (and admittedly very good overtakes and skill) and Bottas certainly hasn’t gained that many from luck.
But that aside, even with Ricciardo’s poor race last race, he has looked very good this year.
krxx
27th May 2018, 18:09
But in Baku, both drivers were given a reprimand and neither was deemed more responsible than the other. I think Verstappen was more to blame, But Ricciardo certainly has to take some responsibility. If an incident was very one sided in terms of the blame being far more on one driver than the other, they no doubt will have had some punishment this late into the race. – They didn’t punish MV for at least two reasons: the two involved cars were from the same team and bc of the statements the drivers made to the stewards after Horner had told them what to say. They were all seen rushing to the motorhome where Horner gave the instuctions to the drivers, rushing bc he wanted to speak to them before the stewards did. And the stewards let it all happen. In a poll, 80% of the fans blamed MV. Bear in mind he’s got a huge fanbase. But more importantly, he made one or even two illegal moves, clearly visible, that were the cause of the crash. The statements issued by the drivers, especially that from Ric which was kind of oddly formulated, were constructed meant for DR to take part of the blame. Why? So MV, so also RB themselves, wouldn’t get a penalty.
Todfod (@todfod)
27th May 2018, 17:42
Agree. If it wasn’t for the mechanical failure at Bahrain, and the crash with Max at Baku, he probably would be neck and neck with Hamilton for the WDC lead right now, and in front of both the Ferrari drivers who have had a quicker car.
You got to hope that Renault can finally bring a worthy upgrade to their power unit and give Red Bull a fighting chance in this year’s championship.
Matn
27th May 2018, 18:23
Jeffrey…
So keen on counting mistakes of just one driver… even a spin is labeled a crash.
A bit of reference, then Ricciardo crashed 4 times and took a gridpanlty the first race by your standards…
K
28th May 2018, 1:33
@matn and he has double the points of his teammate. :)
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
28th May 2018, 17:43
Khm khm:
3. RIC 72
6. VER 35
Michael Brown (@)
27th May 2018, 16:48
So I was thinking back to next year’s change regarding the rear wing which will boost the effectiveness of DRS. I’d welcome the change so DRS can actually have an effect on tracks like this one and Hungary.
However, and this is a big “however,” this had better result in shorter DRS zones in other tracks since the effect is too great as it is. Like Canada, for example. I highly doubt that the FIA has people working for them that have the proper thinking capacity to understand when DRS goes too far, or maybe Charlie and Todt rule with an iron fist.
That said, it would be much better to bin DRS altogether after a proper aero change.
Garns (@)
27th May 2018, 16:53
Wow- what a defensive drive from Dan- what a great win.
Give this guy ANY car ANY team-mate and he will win!
Ricky Bobby 2019 WDC!!
Ed
27th May 2018, 16:59
Red Bull clearly made a mistake promoting Verstappen to be the big star too soon.
He is no Vettel yet and is losing it on his own hype.
Now they have one driver they can’t trust, he is still too erratic.
The other one is tempted to leave cuz they don’t give him the same level of attention even if he is the one getting the better results for the vast majority of the time.
ColdFly (@)
27th May 2018, 17:38
Where to?
At Ferrari there’s probably another contracted driver with a ‘second driver veto’ clause;
At Mercedes they will not want to rock the boat as long as they are fighting for WCCs (or HAM resigns);
Renault will first focus on their car, and then ring Alonso;
McLaren might be the only realistic alternative – or V8 Supercars ;)
Todfod (@todfod)
27th May 2018, 18:10
He’s tempted for sure.. especially when Red Bull have explicitly mentioned that they will be focusing a lot of their efforts around Max for the future. It’s besides the point that he hasn’t gotten an offer from Ferrari or Mercedes (or at least what we know of publicly).
He definitely waiting for Ferrari and Merc to give him a call.. but you’re right Seb will veto his move, and Mercedes really find it hard to justify firing Bottas and upsetting the good team harmony.
Renault are a few seasons away from pulling a real Tier 1 driver in to the fold.
So Red Bull might be his best option.
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
27th May 2018, 19:05
that’d be quite a sight to behold.
Nigel
27th May 2018, 17:01
Let’s face it Verstappen is just not as talented as people think. By comparison having the fastest car in the race and starting at the back Prost would have gotten that RBR to P3 at the very least. I think the hype about his talent has worked against Max.
RIC on the other hand continues to get better with time. Congrats.
stefan
27th May 2018, 17:34
Considering that is is near impossible to overtake in Monaco I don’t think that any of the great drivers would have taken it to third.
Nigel
27th May 2018, 17:52
Prost was a very calm driver that made blistering laps look like Sunday drives. That and RBR had the fastest car with a new lap record. Yeah I think Prost would have gotten that car very high indeed. Max is not driving that car to its full potential.
stefan
27th May 2018, 18:01
The cars are to wide , most of the track you can’t drive with two cars next to eachother. I’m not saying that Prost is not a better driver but getting it to third is just nonsense.
Anyway this year Verstappen is just driving badly. But today he did nearly as good as possible
Todfod (@todfod)
27th May 2018, 17:37
Alonso got it to P6 (I think) in 2010 after making a Verstappen Style error in FP3 and starting from the pitlane … so I honestly didn’t think that Max did a brilliant job on raceday either. If he had gotten by Hulkenberg and Gasly, then yeah.. great job.
ColdFly (@)
27th May 2018, 17:51
As good as Alonso was in that race; he did overtake most during their respective pit stops.
Nett on track overtakes might have been very similar in both instances, @todfod.
And Alonso did get overtaken himself (oops, opening up that can of worms again).
Nigel
27th May 2018, 17:55
Alonso would have done a better job in the RBR than Max did today.
John
27th May 2018, 19:28
fact or opinion?
comparing current cars which can’t follow closely to the cars of 2010…
I think you can never make a statement like yours without considering all variables.
I also think in 2018 it couldn’t have been done much better, without taking much more chances.
I think VER is very quick, on good days he is very good, today was such a day…and on bad days also very bad.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
27th May 2018, 20:35
Nonsense, Verstapen is that talented. He’s just getting a bit to impatient this season. Hamilton had the same issue in 2011 (when he got outscored by Button) and Ricciardo in 2014 (when he got outscored by Kvyat).
All three just were/are simply trying too hard, taking too much risk and ending up losing places and races because of it.
Vettel has been crashing into people 3 or 4 times per season since the start of his career. It cost him a WDC here and there (2009 and 2017), but still.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
27th May 2018, 20:37
Sorry Ricciardo vs Kvyat was in 2015 of course. 2014 was when he crushed Vettel. Ricciardo was magnificent that season.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
28th May 2018, 9:10
There are plenty of GPs to pick this year to show that Verstappen is not that talented, you just chose the wrong GP. There is no way to prove that Prost or Alonso would have done better than Verstappen yesterday.
Tristan (@skipgamer)
27th May 2018, 17:02
How would the championship standings look if Max didn’t block Daniel in Baku? Lewis wouldn’t be so far ahead, Valterri would be much higher, Daniel would have to be close behind?
Red Bull are actually in this championship race… If they actually put their weight behind Daniel… Especially if any Renault upgrade actually does come (unlikely :( )
Blazzz
27th May 2018, 17:20
Daniel Ricciardo is a more complete driver than Max Verstappen.
Congrats to Daniel with a wounded car.
HAM will be happy with the minor points loss. VERS will be having a tough time swallowing this one
because at the very least- he should have been on the podium.
But seriously, Monaco has no place in F1 in racing terms. There’s been a few exceptional races over the years but this race is typically a right bore.
Red Bull should be sealing RIC’s signature. He is their best bet for the championship- if indeed RBR are in the championship fight.
Green Flag (@greenflag)
27th May 2018, 21:01
Definitely NOT a bore. A most deserving winner, hard racing, great qualifying, enormous excitement and anticipation building up to the race, fantastic atmosphere, smart strategies required, total driver concentration a must, it’s pretty much what F1 is all about. Monaco seldom disappoints, and really delivered today. Can’t wait til next year. If you didn’t thoroughly enjoy this race maybe you should try canasta.
Blazzz
27th May 2018, 22:06
I don’t know whether your comment is sarcasm or not.
bcoliver
28th May 2018, 0:22
+1
Montréalais (@)
28th May 2018, 2:26
I have never liked or paid much attention to the Monaco race. It has always seemed to me to be a relatively boring parade. This year I didn’t pull my attention away even during TSN’s commercial breaks (when the race is reduced to a small box on the upper left-hand corner of the screen and shown without Sky’s race-feed sound). The only really exciting Monaco GP that I have seen since I started watching in 1989.
Blazzz
28th May 2018, 9:05
So you think this race was more exciting than the 2008 Monaco GP for example?
ColdFly (@)
27th May 2018, 17:23
Best race to have an MGU-K fail.
Worst race to crash in P3.
You need both luck and smarts to rake in the points.
Ed
27th May 2018, 18:12
Imagine how happy the team would be with Verstappen if Ricciardo’s issues were terminal.
They had the machine for a 1-2 and would leave with nothing.
DaveW (@dmw)
27th May 2018, 18:08
The idea that fast-wearing tires would mix it up failed. It had the opposite effect: drivers just cruised around even slower. For large parts of the race, the leaders were slower than the midfield. I can’t remember a Monaco where lapped traffic was rarely seen like this. That’s usually a key ingredient of the race. Yes Ricciardo had his problem, but there was zero chance of even pressuring him or going 2 stops to make a run at the end because all available tires were useless. The top five looked like they were taking the in-laws to the airport.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
27th May 2018, 20:47
@dmw Exactly. Last year’s race showed some strategy differences where Vettel and Ricciardo picked up a place (or two) with (in hindsight) a better strategy.
But we do see a lot of races where they simply drive “slow” to prevent an extra pitstop instead of actually racing. They still make only one stop so why not give them tyres that can do half a race easily instead of forcing them to drive so slow in the longer stint.
Domingo
27th May 2018, 18:37
anyone notice how, christian horner was being extra sweet towards Danny Ricc, up untill now Redbull were pandering to Max, you could see him “over-act” in the post race events. It is so pathetic. I think marko had a change of mind of who to back.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
27th May 2018, 20:39
Indeed I had the same idea when I saw the overly exuberant Horner hugging Ricciardo.
Or then perhaps, he was truly happy that the team scored a win on true merit. It did feel fake though.
kpcart
27th May 2018, 18:49
with the point standings now, and witnessing verstappens constant errors, I bet Red Bull wished they set team orders in Baku.
matt
27th May 2018, 19:05
So even when the lead car is broken people still cant over take in this god forsaken place.
CarWars (@maxv)
27th May 2018, 21:18
Because they didn’t even try..
Ed
27th May 2018, 22:03
and how should they try?
his car was fine until sixth gear. They go past that in less than 10 seconds on a 80 seconds lap.
K
28th May 2018, 1:41
@ed his car was 160 hp down with opverheating rear brakes for whole lap. reference to missing gear related to not using 7th anymore because car was so slow on straights. Bit more impressed now?
JohnH (@johnrkh)
27th May 2018, 20:54
A terrific race I have to admit. Ricciardos drive was just fantastic. He again showed he is truly a WDC contender he kept Vettel at bay while keeping a bit up his sleeve the fight with. I’m pleased to see Verstappen get to the end. He drove a clean race but I can’t help but think that there are drivers who would have made up more places, after all he was in the fastest car on the day.
Anyway Ricciardo done what he always does, drives sensibly quickly and delvers.
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
27th May 2018, 22:19
I have to say, what a shocking race for Williams, and Stroll in particular. Does it pour when it rains? It would appear so for Williams.
I’d like to think a better driver would have been able to produce better performance. I couldn’t understand what they were doing, it would seem that they were totally confused as well.
They have to let Kubica have a go. I mean whats there to lose? The only way is up.
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
27th May 2018, 23:50
Have to wonder if Red Bull messed up lobbying the FIA to dump the MGU-H for 2021 instead of the MGU-K. Maybe they’ll lobby to remove both. And regen braking. ;-)
MaddMe (@)
28th May 2018, 0:47
For those thinking (as I was during the race) that Ricciardo was only down on power and with it being Monaco, he just needed to keep track position, he would win, think again…
The rear brakes on the modern F1 car is mostly the dynamo generators for the MGU-K, with a small disk brake to assist with braking. When the MGU-K fails, the main part of the rear braking system is gone, leaving the just the reduced size brake disk.
In order for Ricciardo to prevent his rear brakes from overheating, he needed to shift the brake balance forwards (something like 7%), which means that each time he hit the brakes, he was at a very high risk of locking the fronts and throwing the back of the car out of line.
Without the MGU-K, he was also down something like 160 BHP on the rest of the field, which meant that he didn’t have the power to be able to reach 7th gear and was down on power going through the corners.
The race he drove wasn’t one of the best Monaco performances I have seen in a good number of years, purely due to his management driving a ‘broken’ car…
@HoHum (@hohum)
28th May 2018, 1:31
@maddme, your article seems to suggest the last sentence should have been positive rather than negative; was/wasn’t, typo ?
MaddMe (@)
28th May 2018, 6:59
Yes, autocorrect corrected a word incorrectly…
It was in meant to say ‘The race he drove was one of the best…’. …
Thanks @hohum
JohnnyF1
28th May 2018, 9:09
As I was watching the telemetry, I noticed Daniel was shifting through the gears slowly revving the engine more compared to Vettel who was shifting up to 6 really quickly. Why is that? I’m sure Daniel had to rev more to compensate for the lack of power and the fact he has lost 7-8th gear but is Ferrari trying to reduce engine ware or something? Could Vettel rev more like Daniel and catch him? I personally think Vettel could have had one or two attempts to overtake Daniel even if he messed up his tyres, he would have track position and there’s no way Daniel would be able to make the place back with the lack of power. Just seems to me Ferrari where just happy with second and where saving the engine.
David West
28th May 2018, 10:25
Do we now have a 3 way title fight?
I expect Hamilton to be strong in Canada but Vettel could well be up with him, not sure for the rest of the season though.
Robert Williams (@weiliwen)
28th May 2018, 18:12
The race was like watching a no-hitter in baseball – important and a demonstration of skill, but otherwise very boring.
What happened to driver comments? I haven’t seen any recently.