Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo will start at the front of the grid after setting numerous lap records in Saturday’s qualifying race.
Red Bull had looked mighty all weekend, securing one-twos in all three practice sessions with Ricciardo just ahead of his teammate. They should have had the front row to themselves but Max Verstappen will start at the back after failing to set a lap time after an incident in practice; the damage that his car incurred could not be fixed ahead of qualifying.
Ferrari looked like they were threatening Red Bull for pole, but Ricciardo was having none of it in Q3. While Verstappen was MIA, Ricciardo smashed it out of the park with a lap from the very top drawer.
Mercedes have looked distinctly third-best in Monaco so far this weekend, but Lewis Hamilton looked to have sprung a surprise in second, only for his title rival Sebastian Vettel to snatch the position with his final run.
Vettel’s Ferrari teammate Kimi Räikkönen was fourth, ahead of Valtteri Bottas with Esteban Ocon a brilliant sixth in the Force India and Fernando Alonso seventh in the McLaren. Renault’s Carlos Sainz, the other Force India of Sergio Perez and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly completed the top 10.
Ricciardo will have a very good chance of getting his second victory of the season as overtaking is very difficult at the Circuit de Monaco and it looks like he will have the fastest car on the track.
Full qualifying results:
Photo: @F1/Twitter