NOTEBOOK — Monaco Qualifying
Daniel Riccardo took Red Bulls first pole position since the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix and the first pole of his career. He beat both Mercedes who will start second and third.
Pole lap
Riccardo set himself up nicely taking the perfect line through Saint Devote drivers perfectly up the hill through the kink at two and up perfectly to the outside to enter Casino Square. Where he takes the corner beautifully running down the hill.
Into the Mirabeau corners to the inside a the first one before crossing the track for the second part of the corner down to the Hotel Hairpin turns in perfectly for the exit. Nicely thought turns six and seven and eight before setting himself for the run through the tunnel and down to the chicane.
Neatly done, before the flat out run through Tabac before the short run to the Swimming Pool section takes kerb on both entry and exit of the chicane on the entry and exit. Heads to Rascasse where he takes a good line heading to the last two corners good turn through both and on the last one gets a good run to cross the line taking pole.
He said “I’m happy! I put it together when I needed to. Qualifying just built up and built up and I found the rhythm, and then that first run in Q3 was the one I needed to do.”
“I feel I’ve been qualifying very well all year, and it’s cool to get my first pole in Formula One, this place more than any is a great place to get it at. Hopefully tomorrow we can convert it to the win,”
Mix day
While Ricciardo took pole for Red Bull it was a different day for his team-mate max Verstappen who crashed out of Q1. He hit the barrier before doing
He hit the barrier going in the middle of fifteen breaking the front suspension sending him on a one way ticket to the barrier. There wasn’t a lot he could do after the suspension damage on his car.
Bad luck continues
Lewis Hamilton season appears to be going from bad to worse he like last year had reliability problems during the session. They need to really need to get on top of this going into the rest of the season and normally from this race if your strong here your strong in Montreal.
He told BBC News “I don’t really know what to say right now. It was a difficult qualifying but the good thing is I did get out to do a lap, so it is not as bad as some of the races have been.”
Kyvat stewards inquiry
The team were called to the stewards after his car a front floor deflection test following qualifying.
A statement issued after the session by FIA F1 technical delegate Jo Bauer said the vertical deflection of the floor under a load of 4,000 Newtons had exceeded 5mm and thus breached the technical regulations.
However, after consulting with Toro Rosso, stewards accepted the team’s explanation that the failure was related to an impact suffered by Kvyat’s STR11 whilst on track.
provisional grid
Ricciardo, Rosberg; Hamilton, Vettel; Hulkenberg, Sainz; Perez, Kvyat; Alonso, Bottas; Raikkonen, Gutierrez; Button, Massa; Grosjean, Magnussen; Ericsson, Palmer; Haryanto, Wehrlein; Verstappen, Nasr.
Race preview
The race will be a fight between Red Bull and Mercedes they will be fighting this between them as overtaking is hard in Monaco. Mercedes need a clever strategy to jump Red Bull and you can almost grantee a safety car. Mercedes will have learned from there mistake last year
Related
- Qualifying Result
- MONACO GP – Riccardo takes a surprising pole as Mercedes continue to question their pace
- NOTEBOOK – Monaco Practice
- MONACO GP – Ricciardo Goes Slightly Faster Than Both Mercedes In FP2
- MONACO GP – Hamilton tops a dramatic practice one narrowly from Rosberg
- Bianchi’s family launch legal action against Manor, Ecclestone and the FIA over his death
- Monaco Grand Prix – Preview
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