Monaco: Ricciardo tops 2nd practice for Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo topped the timesheets in second practice for Formula 1's Monaco Grand Prix, finishing comfortably ahead of Mercedes who were running heavy fuel loads and focusing on race setup.

The Australian clocked a 1m14.607s on the ultra-soft tires.

Brit Lewis Hamilton was the closest challenger but he was 0.606s slower with German teammate Nico Rosberg nine tenths behind the Italian-Australian.

Hamilton set the early pace on the super-softs, but when Ricciardo, running the upgraded Renault engine, put on the ultra-softs he smoked Hamilton.

Ricciardo's time 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, while his teammate Vettel spun at Mirabeau, tapping the barrier with the rear wing, and then clipped the wall at Ste Devote before continuing with wheel rim damage. The German clocked the ninth quickest time, two tenths off his team-mate and 1.662s slower than Ricciardo.

QUOTES

Mercedes GP

Lewis Hamilton (2nd, 1:15.213): "It's been a relatively good day. No real surprises – except that the track has changed slightly at Turn 15, which has made it a bit quicker through there. Although the new tyres are definitely softer than the other compounds, they still feel pretty hard around here. It's not as easy to get them in the window as we would hope. But generally it's been a really positive start. We've got everything we needed done in both sessions and our pace looks good, so hopefully that continues through the rest of the weekend."

Nico Rosberg (3rd, 1:15.506): "It's great to be back on the streets of my home town here in Monaco – and also to see all the fans so close to us as we're on track. It was a tricky start in to the weekend for us, though. The sessions were a bit messy, with quite a few Virtual Safety Car periods – but I was able to learn a lot on the longer runs we managed to do which was a positive. A big applause for all of the circuit marshals, who did a great job as always to clear the cars quickly. As expected, Red Bull look very strong here. We have some more homework to do during tonight and tomorrow to find some time – but I can't wait for Saturday and the qualifying battle. It should be very close and very exciting, which is great for the sport."

Paddy Lowe: "It's great to be back in Monaco, as always, with beautiful weather making it all the better. We ran through our intended programme – the only minor setback being a slightly uncomfortable moment when Nico dislodged a loose drain cover. It could have been a far nastier incident, so in the grand scheme of things we can be grateful it was only a puncture with no further damage to the car or otherwise. Today was the first time we've run the UltraSoft compound and it seems to be a decent tyre from what we've seen thus far. As usual in Monaco, lap times are dropping dramatically as the drivers and teams dial into the track – and will continue to do so through the weekend. We've made a good start – but it's clear that qualifying will be a highly competitive affair. We'll be working hard over the next 36 hours to get the car in the best shape possible for Saturday."

Williams-Mercedes

Valtteri Bottas (14th, 1:16.849): "We did a lot of laps today. The car set-up felt better than what we have tried here before. At the same time, it was more difficult to drive, with quite a bit of oversteer, so I was a little nervous. I had a bit of a moment in FP1, but that's part of it. It's a tough track. The times are looking very close, so any gain we can make before qualifying will be very useful."

Felipe Massa (16th, 1:17.286): "It was a difficult morning, losing so much time in the session when I could have been driving. I missed a lot of laps, and we know in Monaco it is important to be on the track all the time you can. It was not a very good afternoon for us. We struggled to get good lap times . We're missing grip and traction, so we need to work on the car to try to improve and make it more competitive for this track, especially for the race. It is a very special weekend where I always enjoy driving, seeing the fans and how special this race is for them – so I hope we can do well for them."

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: "It was a typical Monaco Thursday, with everything thrown at it. We had the unfortunate incident with Felipe in FP1, and the guys in the garage did a brilliant job to get him back out for FP2. We've got everything done that we needed to between the cars, despite that. It's just unfortunate that Felipe has missed some running on the track, which is really important in Monaco. He'll have to recover from that on Saturday morning. Valtteri got through everything we wanted. We've done long enough runs on each of the tyre compounds, so we've got a good idea how they'll behave. Now it's a case of getting ourselves ready for Saturday. There's a lot to do and look through, as usual, but fortunately we've got an extra day to do it."

Red Bull-Tag Heuer

Daniel Ricciardo (1st, 1:14.607): "The engine has helped a little bit but obviously we have a good car around here as well, I think it's down to a little bit of both. Let's see how we go in qualifying on Saturday. We are in a good position, depending on what the track is going to do on Sunday. I have good confidence with the car which is very important around here. I have always loved the third sector, I'm usually pretty quick in that sector. I am a bit disappointed the second apex by the swimming pool has been opened up, it's less challenging. We have a bit more downforce than other cars so that keeps us a bit steadier. If you're going to pick the races on the calendar to win then Monaco is up there, it's so prestigious, and you can really show personality around this track. Come qualifying and race day Mercedes will turn it up but hopefully I can stay in front. I'll be surprised if we can keep the gap we have today in qualifying but we will see how we go. If the weather stays the same for the race and qualifying we won't change too many things. The goal here is pole and win."

Max Verstappen (4th, 1:15.571): "It looks like we are not too bad, so I think it's a good start to the weekend. There's always a lot of work to do but I think it's a good start. It's good to get back in the car and this track is very challenging so that's always nice to do. On my short runs I had a bit of traffic and also when Sebastian spun I was behind him, but these things happen in practice and of course it was a great lap time by Daniel. We are almost there, tonight I will look into the data a bit more to improve my car but the most important thing is to stay out of the walls and get confident. You have to build up over the weekend so that's what we did today and we'll try to improve everything for Saturday. I think the feeling was there, we just built it up lap by lap and we didn't have a crash so that's the most important thing. The conditions were OK, we just need to work on the car balance and getting a bit more confidence in the car and from there on we'll see what happens. We are not too far off, we'll try to improve our car but I'm sure others will do that as well so we'll see."

Force India-Mercedes

Sergio Perez (8th, 1:16.120): "Driving in Monaco is always a big challenge, even during the practice sessions, because you have to find your rhythm quickly and build up speed with each lap. It has been a good day with no issues and we've collected the information we need on all three tyre compounds. I'm not completely happy with the car yet so I think there's more to come. That's what we need to look at tonight and tomorrow to make sure I feel totally confident with the car, which is especially important here."

Nico Hulkenberg (11th, 1:16.487): "It was a very promising start to our weekend, on a day in which our priority was to get in all of our planned running. Driving around this track is always a lot of fun as it's a circuit that tests you to the limit. Even the newly-resurfaced areas have pretty good grip, so it gives you confidence as you drive. We ticked all the boxes in our plan and we were able to run on Ultra Soft tyres in the afternoon to learn about them. The feeling I got from the car is positive: there are a few tweaks we can make to get a bit more grip here and there, but the potential for a good weekend is there. It's up to us to work well now and turn this promising start into a good result."

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: "Our main aim today was to give the drivers as much time on track as possible and in this regard they both did a great job, keeping their noses clean and clocking up the laps. It was a classic Monaco Friday, where a mistake can cost you a lot of time. We had quite a busy programme today, with both aero and mechanical test items in our plan. One of the main tasks was understanding the three tyre compounds, including the new Ultra Soft tyre, as each presents its own challenges around this track. As usual, we saw a lot of track evolution as the day progressed so this will be taken into account when we look at our data. We are quite happy with the long run pace and the drivers' feedback is positive as well, so we have a solid base on which to build. We have a lot of data to analyse, courtesy of nearly 160 laps, and plenty of time to look at it. Our focus now is to extract some extra performance from the car for qualifying, which is crucial around such a narrow track, where overtaking is very hard."

Toro Rosso-Ferrari

Daniil Kvyat (5th, 1:15.815): "I think it was a decent day for us in the office today. We completed many useful laps and we had a very consistent day here in Monaco. We now have plenty of things to look at tonight and tomorrow, as well as analysing everything before qualifying and the race. I think that overall we are looking quite good, there is good potential for us, and I'd say that if we do our homework well we can have a strong weekend. It was the first time that we used the Ultrasoft tyres today and they felt okay; we just need to look into the data from the practice session in order to understand this compound well and extract the most out of it."

Carlos Sainz (6th, 1:15.981): "I enjoyed it a lot out there today! To have a smooth Thursday in Monaco is always important in order to build-up your confidence for the rest of the weekend. The track is really fast compared to last year and the lap times are coming down nicely… It feels like we're pushing the Formula 1 cars back to really challenging times! I was a bit surprised with the amount of degradation on the Ultrasofts, which won't be easy to handle, but it will be the same for everyone and we will see what we can do in the race. We were able to complete our programme and had no issues throughout the day, so we can be pretty happy with our start to the Monaco Grand Prix."

Phil Charles, Chief Race Engineer: "Quite a productive day today for us. Both drivers have performed well, building their pace and reducing their margins nicely through the day. In fact, I think Carlos and Daniil achieved a good balance, as we haven't left much Toro Rosso blue bodywork paint on the walls… Although we have left a little bit of black wheel paint! I hope they can maintain this level for the rest of the weekend. As usual, the traffic in Monaco is very difficult to manage. The track never seems big enough for the number of cars! It is also true that both of our drivers have found frustration on key laps today. So, as is customary here, we will need to work hard to be proactive in finding their gaps for qualifying. To this end, the engineers will study today's footage again tomorrow, along with the drivers, to make sure they can be as well prepared as possible for Saturday. On the engineering side, we have learnt quite a bit. In particular, we split the mapping of the Super Soft and Soft tyres across the drivers in both FP1 and FP2. They both collected some good data so hopefully we will be able to make some good conclusions that will stand us in good stead for the rest of the weekend."

More to follow…..

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