Monaco Grand Prix – Daniel Ricciardo continued his Monaco Grand Prix practice form by topping the third-and-final session prior to qualifying, edging team-mate Max Verstappen – who crashed in the closing stages of the session – by 0.001 of a second.
The Red Bulls continued their free practice domination by taking first and second in the final practice session before qualifying, meaning they’ve locked out the top two places in all sessions so far this weekend.
With the Red Bulls seemingly unchallenged, both Verstappen and Ricciardo took turns at topping the session, with Ricciardo’s time of 1:11.786 setting a track record, beating yesterday’s best effort by around one tenth of a second.
The Red Bull team are faced with a car rebuild prior to qualifying after Verstappen became the first proper victim of the Monaco barriers by crashing out in the closing stages of the session.
He tagged the inside wall at the right-left chicane of the swimming pool section, damaging his steering and sending him into the barrier on the exit of the chicane, causing a red flag.
In what might turn out to be a battle between Ferrari and Mercedes for the final podium place, the Ferraris took third and fourth place, with Sebastian Vettel leading Kimi Raikkonen. Vettel’s best effort fell one-quarter of a second shy of the pace.
The Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas completed the top six, however, Bottas made a clumsy error in the early stages of the session.
After running wide at Sainte Devote, he misjudged a 180 degree manoeuvre and tagged the barrier with the back of his Mercedes, which required a new rear wing as a result.
The Toro Rossos of Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly were the only other team to set times within one second of the fastest Red Bull, finishing seventh and eighth respectively.
Renault’s Carlos Sainz and Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin completed the top ten.
To view the full results of the session, click here.
