Red Bull showing impressive pace, Mercedes still looking very strong and a lot of drive off’s through out Thursdays two free practice sessions in Monaco.
FP1:
Lewis Hamilton Emerged quickest in first practice for the Monaco Grand Prix as he resumed his duel with Mercedes Formula 1 team mate Nico Rosberg.
With Pirelli’s ultra-soft tyre making its race debut, Hamilton set the pace with a lap of 1m15.537s, just half-a-second slower than last year’s pole position time.
The session was red-flagged with three minutes to go as it emerged a drain cover had worked loose near Set Devite, causing punctures to the left-rear of Rosberg’s car and the front-right of Jenson Button’s McLaren after hitting debris.
Just 24 minutes in, Felipe Massa lost control of his Williams coming out of Set Devote, severely damaging the left front and rear of his car as he clouted the barrier, resulting in a virtual safety car period.
Midway through the session Hamilton and Rosberg again traded quickest laps, with the former again taking the honours, conjuring a time that would remain unbeaten.
It is anticipated that in dry conditions the pole time will be two seconds faster than in 2015, around the 1m13s mark.
Shortly after, though, Hamilton had his own moment at Ste Devote, carrying too much speed into the first corner and locking up into the escape road, albeit comfortably short of the barrier.
Hamilton was not the only driver to make a mistake at that turn as numerous others followed suit.
Hamilton ultimately finished a tenth of a second quicker than Rosberg, with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel next up and 0.419 seconds adrift.
The leading trio were then followed by Red Bull pair Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, with Ricciardo enjoying the benefit of the new Renault engine, along with Kevin Magnussen.
FP1 Results:
Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m15.537s | – | 31 |
2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1m15.638s | 0.101s | 39 |
3 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1m15.956s | 0.419s | 26 |
4 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/Renault | 1m16.308s | 0.771s | 29 |
5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull/Renault | 1m16.371s | 0.834s | 30 |
6 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | 1m16.426s | 0.889s | 37 |
7 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India/Mercedes | 1m16.560s | 1.023s | 34 |
8 | Sergio Perez | Force India/Mercedes | 1m16.697s | 1.160s | 28 |
9 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1m16.912s | 1.375s | 24 |
10 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | 1m17.130s | 1.593s | 39 |
11 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams/Mercedes | 1m17.562s | 2.025s | 44 |
12 | Romain Grosjean | Haas/Ferrari | 1m17.599s | 2.062s | 33 |
13 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren/Honda | 1m17.838s | 2.301s | 27 |
14 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas/Ferrari | 1m17.909s | 2.372s | 25 |
15 | Jenson Button | McLaren/Honda | 1m17.920s | 2.383s | 26 |
16 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m18.187s | 2.650s | 29 |
17 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 1m18.274s | 2.737s | 34 |
18 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m18.301s | 2.764s | 33 |
19 | Felipe Massa | Williams/Mercedes | 1m18.746s | 3.209s | 10 |
20 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1m18.871s | 3.334s | 22 |
21 | Rio Haryanto | Manor/Mercedes | 1m20.528s | 4.991s | 28 |
22 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor/Mercedes | 1m20.868s | 5.331s | 25 |
FP2:
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo set an impressive pace as he topped the timesheets in second practice for the Monaco Grand Prix, finishing comfortably ahead of Mercedes.
The Australian clocked a 1m14.607s on the ultra-soft tyres and followed that up with another la that was just 0.1 seconds slower.
Lewis Hamilton was closest challenger but he was 0.606s slower with team mate Nico Rosberg three tenths further back.
Hamilton set the early pace on the super-softs, but when Ricciardo, running the upgraded Renault engine, bolted on the ultra-softs he went top with a 1m15.015s.
Hamilton closed to within 0.198s of Ricciardo when he tried the ultra-softs, but the Australian improved again and the time remained unchallenged as attention turned to long runs.
Ricciardo’s pacesetting lap was just over four tenths quicker than last year’s pole position and just over a second slower than the qualifying lap record of 1m13.556s set by Sebastian Vettel in 2011.
Max Verstappen was fourth quickest, just under a second off the pace, ahead of the Toro Rosso duo of Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz Jr, who managed just over 100 laps between them.
Kimi Raikkonen was the fastest Ferrari in seventh, with his team-mate Vettel having had a messy session.
The German spun at Mirabeau, tapping the barrier with the rear wing, and then clipped the wall at Ste Devote before continuing with only wheel rim damage.
When he finally got a clean lap together, the German clocked the ninth quickest time, two tenths off his team-mate and 1.662s slower than Ricciardo.
There were several other mistakes in Monte Carlo with Romain Grosjean bringing out the virtual safety car when he lost control on the exit of the tunnel and clouted the outside barrier.
The VSC was called into action again when Rio Haryanto got out of shape exiting the tunnel and clipped the inside barrier.
Kevin Magnussen then crashed at the final corner, causing another VSC, but there was better news for Renault as it managed to get Jolyon Palmer back out for the final 30 minutes following his crash in first practice.
Sergio Perez was eighth with Jenson Button completing the top 10.
It was a disappointing session for Williams with Valtteri Bottas 14th, 2.242s off the pace, with Felipe Massa 16th.
FP2 Results:
Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/Renault | 1m14.607s | – | 40 |
2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m15.213s | 0.606s | 36 |
3 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1m15.506s | 0.899s | 48 |
4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull/Renault | 1m15.571s | 0.964s | 42 |
5 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | 1m15.815s | 1.208s | 53 |
6 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | 1m15.981s | 1.374s | 54 |
7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1m16.040s | 1.433s | 38 |
8 | Sergio Perez | Force India/Mercedes | 1m16.120s | 1.513s | 48 |
9 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1m16.269s | 1.662s | 40 |
10 | Jenson Button | McLaren/Honda | 1m16.325s | 1.718s | 46 |
11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India/Mercedes | 1m16.487s | 1.880s | 49 |
12 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren/Honda | 1m16.723s | 2.116s | 43 |
13 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas/Ferrari | 1m16.782s | 2.175s | 40 |
14 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams/Mercedes | 1m16.849s | 2.242s | 47 |
15 | Romain Grosjean | Haas/Ferrari | 1m16.874s | 2.267s | 23 |
16 | Felipe Massa | Williams/Mercedes | 1m17.286s | 2.679s | 42 |
17 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 1m17.530s | 2.923s | 29 |
18 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m17.562s | 2.955s | 39 |
19 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1m17.761s | 3.154s | 24 |
20 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m17.999s | 3.392s | 49 |
21 | Rio Haryanto | Manor/Mercedes | 1m18.647s | 4.040s | 10 |
22 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor/Mercedes | 1m18.814s | 4.207s | 46 |
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