Anyone looking to place a bet on qualifying would have gone with a Red Bull one-two as dawn broke over Monaco, but when Verstappen crashed out of final practice – topping the time-sheets at that point – Dutch hearts sank.
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Ted brings you the lowdown on every team and drivers’ session, and, being Monaco, bumps into a few famous faces along the way.
Hamilton has some work to do if he is to be in the hunt for pole position in Monaco tomorrow (SAT), with Red Bull setting the pace in practice yesterday.
Vettel started out the year strong, with victories in Australia and Bahrain, but he now sits second in points behind defending champion Lewis Hamilton, who has had a strong few weeks.
In a further boost for Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen qualified fourth ahead of Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas.
Montreal’s Lance Stroll was 18th in qualifying.
Sebastian Vettel would stop Lewis Hamilton from joining him at Ferrari, his former team-mate Mark Webber has claimed. I’m sure if you ask any grid girl on Sunday if they’re happy to stand there, their answer will be yes.
His first run was not quick enough to avoid the dropzone, and he was only able to make an improvement of 0.224s on his second set of hypersofts.
While Ricciardo is aiming to banish the memories of 2016, Verstappen will have some of his own from that year to expel. “Things can happen here”.
He said he expected Red Bull to mount a serious challenge.
Max Verstappen is struggling to keep his Formula One season on track.
“It was a battle with myself, wanting to be the quickest from the start and reach my personal goals”, Ricciardo said.
“It is going to tighten up on Saturday, ” Ricciardo added.
Four-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has welcomed back the “beautiful” grid girls at this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, saying their return is “a lovely thing”.
After dominating opening practice on Thursday ahead of his Red Bull team-mate Dutchman Max Verstappen, Ricciardo was keen to ensure his team remained clear and realistic about their goals.
Verstappen ruined his weekend in the closing stages of the final practice session, hitting the wall at the Swimming Pool chicane and damaging his auto.
The impact damaged both front and rear suspension and the right-hand side of the auto and the damage was too extensive to be fixed in the two hours and 15 minutes between the end of practice and when he would have needed to get out to do a lap in first qualifying.
“They did their best to get the gearbox replaced, which would have been a five-place penalty, but I have to say both vehicle crews did everything that they could to make it happen”.
Verstappen’s mechanics worked furiously to fix the damage on his Red Bull, but they failed to turn his vehicle around in the two-hour gap between practice and qualifying.
Drivers had predicted before the session started that lap records would tumble thanks to the hypersoft tyres – making their competitive debut this weekend – and track resurfacing.
This time he made contact with the barriers at the entrance to the second Swimming Pool chicane, broke the front suspension and went into the wall at the exit.
It was an nearly identical crash to one Verstappen suffered two years ago, and gives Red Bull significant work to do to get the auto ready for qualifying.
“The risk and reward is very well known here”, Ricciardo said.
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On another ideal sunlit morning on the Cote d’Azur, Ferrari were quick to set the pace with Raikkonen and Vettel quickest ahead of Hamilton and Bottas, who had an early “off” at Ste Devote. Vettel would be closer but finished eighth in China after being clipped by Verstappen.
