The four-time world champion from Germany clocked a best time in one minute and 4.650 seconds to outpace nearest rival Lewis Hamilton of Britain by 0.018 seconds and offer hopes of a belated revival by the Italian team.
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Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo believes his package upgrade has been key after he secured pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel took fourth, but the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen is set to be demoted five places from sixth following the Finn’s unscheduled gearbox change ahead of qualifying. “It looked good from Thursday”, said Ricciardo.
Adding to the incident-filled Monaco, Verstappen locked up and scraped the barrier during his second stint on new Ultras.
“It was as bad as some of the races I have been in, in respect of the engine problems, so I’m grateful to be up in third”.
“I knew coming into the weekend we would have a shot at it”, he said, according to the BBC.
“I feel like I have been driving well the last few races but hadn’t got maximum reward”. “The plan was to go out on the ultra soft on the first run in Q2 and at least try and do a good enough lap with that”. It appeared he had dropped off that pace on Saturday until Q3, when he went top with a superb 1:13.622 lap which neither Mercedes driver could beat in the final moments of the session. Verstappen, who also crashed in final practice earlier on Saturday, emerged from the Red Bull cockpit with only his dignity bruised. The Englishman lost the auto in the 130mph Swimming Pool chicane and spun, but somehow only brushed the barriers with his rear wing.
Hamilton, who has now encountered engine problems in three of this year’s six grands prix, has been surprisingly positive in the face of adversity.
“I was surprised by his time in the first part of Q3, I thought I was looking good with my time”, said Rosberg.
Verstappen’s crash and a blown engine in Brazilian Felipe Nasr’s Sauber meant red flags were waved twice to stop the session in the opening phase.
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Toro Rosso drivers Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat again impressed with their Ferrari-powered cars as they managed to stay in the top eight and placed P6 and P7 respectively.
