FP2: Ricciardo distances rivals

F1 Grand Prix, GP Monaco, Monte Carlo Circuit

Like in the first session, Daniel Ricciardo mastered the streets of Monaco and was fastest in his Red Bull. In fact, he increased the advantage over his competitors, with Verstappen now 2 tenths down, and Vettel in third nearly 6 tenths behind.

With the Red Bull duo still firmly in front, Lewis Hamilton ended the day 7 tenths down, closely followed by Raikkonen and Bottas. though relative positions among the top 6 are somewhat shifted, the leading 3 teams still enjoy a reasonable margin on their competition.

Nico Hulkenberg for instance, the fastest of the midfield runners ended 7th fastest, 1.2s down on the pace setter. McLaren's Vandoorne and Alonso upped their game to go 8th and 9th fastest. Carlos Sainz completed the top 10, putting all Renault-powered cars in the better half of the pack.

Competition at the front seemed closer that it appears in the eventual timing sheet, with Vettel especially mixing well in between the Red Bulls until the Verstappen, and later Ricciardo pulled out all stops to go faster yet again. It was if Red Bull wanted to close off the day in a dominant way, leaving their rivals wondering what they could possibly to in the remainder of the weekend.

The onus was obviously again on the hypersoft tyre, which is undoubtedly the preferred tyre, but Mercedes did start the session with a split strategy, putting Hamilton on the supersoft and Bottas on the purple-marked ultra soft tyre. Ferrari tried the ultra soft on both its cars while Red Bull immediately opted for the hypersoft. As the session progressed, everyone eventually switched to or briefly ran the hyper soft tyres to set their best times.

This was however after an interruption, as a loose drain cover between Turn 4 and Turn 5 had to be welded down.

Once this was sorted, Grosjean and Verstappen has a minor coming together while everybody was complaining about traffic.

The race weekend at Monaco continues on Saturday, during which traffic will be no less of an issue.