Ricciardo takes pole in Monaco
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo claimed his second career pole position in qualifying for the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix, while team-mate Max Verstappen failed to make the session after crashing in FP3.
Ricciardo topped all three practice sessions and continued to set the pace in qualifying. After setting the fastest times in Q1 and Q2, he put in a 1m10.810s to go 0.229s faster than the rest of the field in the final session.
Lewis Hamilton initially put himself on the front row of the grid after the first laps in Q3, just 0.002s faster than Sebastian Vettel and 0.005s quicker than Kimi Raikkonen. But Vettel pipped him to the post in the second set of laps to put himself P2.
Hamilton finished the day third, ahead of Raikkonen, Valtteri Bottas, and Esteban Ocon.
Max Verstappen’s day went from bad to worst. The team was forced to change his gear box after he crashed in FP3, meaning he headed to qualifying with a five place grid penalty. But the Red Bull driver wouldn’t be able to take part in qualifying as the team worked to repair his car. He’ll start from the back of the grid, alongside Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.
Fernando Alonso put his McLaren P7, ahead of Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, and Pierre Gasly.
After narrowly making it into the second qualifying session, Nico Hulkenberg could only manage P11. Stoffel Vandoorne starts alongside him, while Sergey Sirotkin managed P13.
Charles Leclerc will start his home GP 14th after an impressive performance to put the Sauber in Q2. He narrowly avoided the barriers when he ran off at turn one at the end of Q1, but managed to keep the car on track.
Romain Grosjean qualified 15th, ahead of Brendon Hartley, Marcus Ericsson, and Lance Stroll.