Daniel Ricciardo finished on top of the time charts at the Monaco GP in the first Free Practice Session (FP1) on Thursday. The 90-minute long FP1 session started under clear skies. The air temperature was 21 degrees C and the track temperature was 33 degrees C.
The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the red-striped supersoft tyres, the purple-striped ultrasoft tyres and the pink-striped hypersoft tyres. The new hypersoft tyre made its debut for the 2018 season. It was the tyre of choice in this FP1 session. Some of the drivers experienced graining of the tyres on a green track in the first session of the weekend.
The main takeaways of this session were:
- Both Red Bull drivers were on the pace straightaway. Max Verstappen and Ricciardo traded times at the top of the time charts. Vertstappen’s session ended with 30 minutes to go as he locked up and flat-spotted his tyres. Ricciardo put in his fastest lap in the last part of the session.
- Mercedes had a good opening session as Lewis Hamilton slotted in third behind the Red Bull drivers. Valtteri Bottas was P7.
- Both the Ferrari drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, finished P5 and P6. Vettel’s best lap was 0.915s slower than the fastest lap.
- Carlos Sainz for Renault was P6 and best of the rest.
- Force India’s of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon finished P8 and P11 respectively.
- Romain Grosjean had a few brushes with the barrier but finished P9.
- Fernando Alonso was able to do a few laps only, as a brake sensor problem cut his session short.
Conclusions
As expected Red Bull showed impressive form in this first practice session at Monaco. Mercedes who are anticipating a tough race will be encouraged by Hamilton’s pace. Ferrari has not shown their hand on the first day of practice so far this season. So there must be more to come from the Italian team.
Results of FP1 :
| Pos | Driver | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:12.126 | 35 | ||
| 2 | 1:12.280 | +0.154s | 24 | |
| 3 | 1:12.480 | +0.354s | 33 | |
| 4 | 1:13.041 | +0.915s | 39 | |
| 5 | 1:13.066 | +0.940s | 37 | |
| 6 | 1:13.456 | +1.330s | 39 | |
| 7 | 1:13.502 | +1.376s | 38 | |
| 8 | 1:13.717 | +1.591s | 38 | |
| 9 | 1:13.943 | +1.817s | 23 | |
| 10 | 1:13.962 | +1.836s | 39 | |
| 11 | 1:14.000 | +1.874s | 38 | |
| 12 | 1:14.034 | +1.908s | 45 | |
| 13 | 1:14.134 | +2.008s | 37 | |
| 14 | 1:14.240 | +2.114s | 37 | |
| 15 | 1:14.291 | +2.165s | 36 | |
| 16 | 1:14.521 | +2.395s | 38 | |
| 17 | 1:14.637 | +2.511s | 15 | |
| 18 | 1:14.782 | +2.656s | 42 | |
| 19 | 1:15.206 | +3.080s | 38 | |
| 20 | 1:18.801 | +6.675s | 7 |
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