Daniel Ricciardo will start the Monaco Grand prix from pole position. The Australian driver dominated all three segments and was only getting faster. Almost every fast lap of his this afternoon was a new lap record.
Meanwhile, Mercedes was the only team that tried to pass Q2 with ultrasoft tyres. A success in that would have meant an advantage in strategy at the beginning of the race. Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas did only one stint with these tyres. Hamilton said they were awful after going back to the pits. After that, both of them put on hypersoft and went through to qualify for Q3. Hamilton though stayed third, behind Sebastian Vettel while Bottas was fifth.
Esteban Ocon of Force India took the “best of the rest” today giving the sixth best time.
Ricciardo’s Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen did not take part in the session. He had a heavy crash during the third free practice. Before qualifying his team found out there was need of a gearbox change. That meant 5-place grid penalty. But the team’s mechanics did not manage to assemble the car so Verstappen just watched the qualifying from the pit.
There were no serious incidents during the session.
#F1 – Results of the qualifying session #MonacoGP ?? pic.twitter.com/Cmq4cWbbpf
— FIA (@fia) May 26, 2018
