Ricciardo fastest in Monaco F1 qualifying ahead of Vettel and Hamilton
Daniel Ricciardo swept all three qualifying sessions to take pole position for the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix on hypersoft tyres, beating Sebastian Vettel to top spot. Lewis Hamilton booked a spot on the second row as he finished the session third.
The Australian’s times tumbled throughout Friday afternoon and culminated in a Q3 track record of 1min 10.810sec, 0.229sec faster than Vettel’s effort.
Hamilton set the fastest first sector in his final flying lap but could only manage third, another two tenths back from Vettel but 0.034sec faster than fourth place Kimi Räikkönen.
Valtteri Bottas was 0.631 slower Ricciardo’s time and finished fifth.
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Both Force Indias made it into the top 10, with Esteban Ocon beating Fernando Alonso to sixth. Carlos Sainz Jr finished eighth, 0.020sec slower than Alonso but ahead of the other Force India of Sergio Pérez.
Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10, 1.411sec off the pace.
Nico Hülkenberg was out in Q2 in 11th place, ahead of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne.
Although he finished eighth-fastest in Q1, Sergey Sirotkin only managed 13th overall as he was out in the following session.
Romain Grosjean – who has a three-place grid penalty for his Spanish GP collision – finished 15th, 0.014sec slower than 14th-place Charles Leclerc.
In 16th, Brendon Hartley missed out on Q2 by a tenth after a strong FP3 session in which he attained P7. The Toro Rosso rookie finished ahead of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, who couldn’t forge a flying lap in clean air.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen finished the session 19th and nearly 1.4sec off the pace, behind Lance Stroll. Magnussen will therefore start next to his penalised team-mate for the race.
Max Verstappen, who crashed out of FP3, needed a gearbox change and was therefore ruled out of qualifying.
| 1 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1min 10.810sec | |
| 2 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1min 11.039sec | +0.229sec |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1min 11.232sec | +0.422sec |
| 4 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1min 11.266sec | +0.456sec |
| 5 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1min 11.441sec | +0.631sec |
| 6 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 1min 12.061sec | +1.251sec |
| 7 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1min 12.110sec | +1.300sec |
| 8 | Carlos Sainz Jr | Renault | 1min 12.130sec | +1.320sec |
| 9 | Sergio Pérez | Force India | 1min 12.154sec | +1.344sec |
| 10 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 1min 12.221sec | +1.411sec |
| 11 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault | 1min 12.411sec | |
| 12 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 1min 12.440sec | |
| 13 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | 1min 12.521sec | |
| 14 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber | 1min 12.714sec | |
| 15 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1min 12.728sec | |
| 16 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 1min 13.179sec | |
| 17 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1min 13.265sec | |
| 18 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 1min 13.323sec | |
| 19 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1min 13.393sec | |
| 20 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull |
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