Five things we learned on Thursday in Monaco

The Monaco Grand Prix is Formula 1’s blue ribbon event. It breaks with convention in many areas, one of which being that the opening practice sessions of the weekend take place on Thursday rather than Friday.

Mercedes and Ferrari are probably glad that they have an extra day to mull over their practice data – Red Bull appears to be the dominant force around Monaco’s streets this year. Both pursuing teams have plenty of ground to make up before qualifying and the race.

Daniel Ricciardo topped both practice timesheets on Thursday, recording a track record 1m11.841s in FP2. Team-mate Max Verstappen was 0.194 seconds behind.

The team’s closest challenger was Sebastian Vettel, albeit over half a second behind Ricciardo’s benchmark. Lewis Hamilton was fourth, 0.695s behind Ricciardo, with Mercedes’ race pace paint an even bleaker picture for the reigning champions.

Here are five things we learned on Thursday in Monaco.