Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, Monaco, 2018

Ricciardo’s win shows F1 is more competitive in 2018

2018 Monaco Grand Prix stats and facts

Posted on

| Written by

Daniel Ricciardo won the seventh race of his F1 career in Monaco, putting him level with Rene Arnoux and Juan Pablo Montoya in terms of victories.

It was a stand-out weekend for Ricciardo, who also took the second pole position of his career, two years after his first, becoming the 68th F1 driver to start from the front more than once.

He also led every lap of the race, becoming the first driver to do so since Lewis Hamilton beat him to last year’s Singapore Grand Prix victory. Ricciardo has now led more laps this year (90) than Hamilton (84).

Sebastian Vettel has led the most, and has also spent the most laps in second place, which happens to be the same total of 139. Championship leader Hamilton has spent more laps in third place than any other position.

Ricciardo missed out on the fastest lap and therefore a ‘grand slam’ too. However Max Verstappen gave Red Bull their fourth fastest lap of the season. Mercedes took the other two and Ferrari haven’t had one yet.

This was the fourth win for Red Bull in Monte-Carlo and their third scored by an Australia, two of the others coming courtesy of Mark Webber. They also took their fifth Monaco pole, which is more than Mercedes or Renault have.

Ricciardo’s success is an encouraging sign of how competitive F1 is in 2018. After six races three different teams have each scored more than one win. This took until round 15 to happen last year and did not happen at all in 2016, 2015 or 2014.

Ricciardo’s pole position time of 1’10.810 was a new record for the circuit. Last year this track had the fourth-shortest lap of the year in terms of time. With the hyper-softs returning for next week’s Canadian Grand Prix, sub-70 second lap times could be possible at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

While Vettel and Hamilton kept up their points-scoring streaks (Hamilton on a record 31), Fernando Alonso failed to add to his points haul for the first time this year. However he remains the only driver who hasn’t been out-qualified by his team mate all year.

Charles Leclerc became the first home driver in the Monaco Grand Prix since Oliver Beretta 24 years earlier. Beretta finished eighth in that race which would have made him a points-scorer today. However Leclerc crashed out with brake failure. His team mate Marcus Ericsson remains the only driver who hasn’t reached Q2 so far this year.

Go ad-free for just £1 per month

>> Find out more and sign up

Review the year so far in statistics here:

Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Monaco Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2018 Monaco Grand Prix

Browse all 2018 Monaco Grand Prix articles

Author information

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

20 comments on “Ricciardo’s win shows F1 is more competitive in 2018”

  1. My favourite type of articles, cheers, keep it up.

    1. Same here, I always look forward to the Stats and Facts post-race. I know there is a lot going on at RaceFans these days (one of the reasons I became a supporter) but maybe the delay on these articles is a great stat to increase visits, I am always checking for them! ;)

      1. I keep thinking I’ve missed the article completely, then it shows up at the end of the week!

  2. A new official lap record faster than both last season’s equivalent fastest race lap as well as the fastest 2004 race lap, which I still regarded as the official record holder before this seasons’ race.

    The 3rd lowest winners’ overall time on this circuit behind only the 2007 and ’09 races.

    Both Alonso’s and Leclerc’s first respective non-finishes of the season, as well as the 1st of his career for the latter, while Hartley is still yet to DNF in the manner of not getting classified at the same time this season.

    Also, the first time since 2015 that Sauber’s got at least one of its drivers to the chequered flag on this particular venue.

    Due to the outcome of the most recent race; Hamilton, Vettel, Perez, Sainz, and Stroll are now the only drivers who still have a chance to achieve the feat of reaching the chequered flag at every race of a season this season.

    The 7th win for Ricciardo as well as the 1st from a top-3 starting grid position.

    Grosjean and Sirotkin are still the only drivers without a single point achieved this season.

    1. BTW, I liked it better when the articles of the ‘stats and facts’ category were posted on the Monday after the relevant race weekend in question.

      1. I second that. Hope its not a week’s delay when we have the double or triple headers. My favourite article would then get swallowed up with the next race reports.

  3. This was only the third time in history three teams each won two races in the first six races.

    1. Wow, didn’t think it was so rare!

  4. I hope F1 is more competitive this year, but I’m not entirely convinced yet. Last year at this time Ferrari with SV were leading which was a refreshing departure from it always being Mercedes, in this chapter. So this season with Mercedes leading, Ferrari second, and RBR third, it kind of feels like the same old. However, early days yet. If RBR can have better reliability than last year then they may rock the boat a bit more, but we need SV to haul back his points deficit to LH too. Hopefully the three teams remain close to each other in terms of pace.

    1. Yes, it’s worrying that ferrari let hamilton take the lead during races they were faster than merc.

  5. Ricciardo (to date) and Jean Alesi are the only 2 drivers to have had more than 1 pole position but only scored pole at 1 circuit.

    First time Sirotkin has finished ahead of Stroll this year, leaving Grosjean as the only driver not to finished ahead of his team-mate at any race this year (including races where 1 driver failed to finish).

    First time since Japan 2017 that no Finnish driver has finished on the podium.

    19 classified finishers in Monaco – equals the record from 2007 (where there were 22 starters).

    5th time Hulkenberg has started 11th in Monaco – no other driver has managed this more than twice.

    First time since Hungary 2010 that Red Bull were fastest in FP1, FP2, FP3, Q1, Q2 and Q3.

    First time since 2008 that 3 drivers have won twice in the first 6 races of the season.

    Thanks to statsf1.com and magnetimarelli.com for some of these.

  6. I’m going to say it, but I think Vandoorne has been disappointing. I’d have expected him to at least outqualified Alonso once so far this year and 13-5 in 2017 is not a great record either.

    I know we’re talking about Alonso, but he’s 11 years older than he was in 2007 where Hamilton seemed to have coped just fine keeping pace with Alonso. From the hype, I hoped Vandoorne was the next big thing, but Icon and Leclerc are really putting him in the shade.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      2nd June 2018, 14:32

      @john-h I just watched the McLaren documentary from 2017. It focused a lot on Vandoorne and his preparation before racing. I got the feeling that Alonso stays away from the McLaren offices as much as possible. In fact, if he could race the whole year without stepping foot there, he probably would.

      Just from watching 4 shows, there’s something about that office and McLaren that makes it hard for any non-Brit to adjust – I recall Checo talking about his time there and how hard it was to get used to it. They literally have turned a garage into a museum with folks dressing up as investment bankers – at times, it looks a bit unreal and you can sense that Vandoorne is not comfortable. Even their meetings/announcements seemed so impersonal and more like speeches by some dystopian leader in a Twilight Zone episode:-)

      1. Indeed! That MTC building is the worst. Probably short term it was quite novel to be in that environment (been watching Marc Priestley’s Vlogs recently which were quite revealing in that regard, I recommend them highly), but long term the corporate culture seems to have overtaken the passion for racing. A clean office means no room for imagination!
        Bring back Whitmarsh :)

    2. @john-h Let’s not forget Hamilton had more than a season worth of car time before he got into a car that without a doubt was easier to drive than this one AND he had the full team support. Vandoorne has none of that, on top Alonso is 10 years of experience richer. Hardly a comparison that is fair to Vandoorne it seems.

      That being said, I hope he can leave McLaren for Renault next season.

      1. @flatsix I have to say, a whole year of racing at all the tracks is probably better preparation to be honest. Vandoorne should be up to speed by now. And Alonso I would say was in his absolute prime in 2007 following back to back championships, so I don’t buy that richer experience helps Vandoorne’s case either.
        Agreed about leaving for Renault, but I’m just saying it as I see it – and really he’s not showing much signs of improvement from last year.

        1. FlatSix (@)
          3rd June 2018, 7:47

          @john-h Well, Hamilton did 7.714km all free in which he could have all the time in the world to work towards the perfect setup, and all of this was done before the very first race in Australia. If I simply do 14 (finished) races times 300km and double it for all of FP and testing (not going to be correct it gives an idea, I’ll also round it up) we get 9.000km for Vandoorne over a year under circumstances where he had to constantly make compromises, save the car, AND drive for Alonso, you can’t argue that’s a better learning environment compared to what Hamiton had I’d say.

          Also, I believe Alonso has been at his best only since 2010. His 2007-2009 seasons really did contribute big to the racer he is, but again that’s personal.

          I’m also not at all convinced it’s realistic for anyone to assume Vandoorne should occasionally beat Alsonso in either Q or R. Neither Massa nor Kimi did that so regular, so if we could say Vandoorne is already on the level of Massa at this point that’s very good.

          That being said, I’m also disappointed with how he’s doing right now. But last weekend was the first race where he was very vocal about driving for Alonso and not for his own, the amount of times they messed up his strategy has been horrendous too. I believe if he were to move away from the toxic Alonso/McLaren situation he’d thrive again.

  7. Only 3 teams (one of them in possession of special advantages that no other team has) have won in the last 5 seasons. And apart from Lotus nicking the first win in 2013, six seasons. That is one reason F1 is declining in popularity – a lack of real competition. And because F1 is now a predominantly pay-TV sport, the big sponsors have departed along with the audiences. Most teams are in a perpetual struggle for cash. Formula E and robo-racing are looking more and more interesting, and are much more accessible. And then there is the utter lack of real racing – with only 3 engines per season, and the need to look after weak tyres, drivers must cruise. The lights of F1 are fading fast.

    1. @rsp123 I think the fact three teams have won all but one race for the past six seasons has nothing to do with it. As long as a minimum of two have a chance to win each weekend nobody is bothered.

      1. Indeed, that’s fine with me, and 2 different classes in f1 is quite typical, this time we have class A: ferrari, mercedes, red bull and class B: all the rest, it’s been like this for a while, in 2006 we had ferrari and renault in class A, in 2007 ferrari and mclaren for example, that’s nothing new and it’s ok as long as teams in class A can challenge each other, which is happening so far this year with also interesting battles in class B, renault vs mclaren vs haas vs force india.

Comments are closed.