MONACO GP – Vettel tops second practice by half a second over Ricciardo
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was fastest in the second practice for this weekends Monaco Grand Prix. The German set his fastest lap on the supersofts going almost half a second faster than Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was third.
Toro Rosso have emerged to be the surprise this weekend with both Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz in the top five around a circuit which doesn’t highlight the relative weakness of their Renault engine.
Mercedes who topped first practice, could only manage eighth with Lewis Hamilton and tenth with Valtteri Bottas. The team say that the dip in there form was because of setup changes during the lunch break. Hamilton was over a second down on his fastest time from FP1.
The reason for this is believed to be the longer Mercedes which appears to have given the world champions with a critical disadvantage around the legendary tight and twisty street circuit.
It was a much scrapper afternoon for all the drivers, the firs casualty being the Williams of Lance Stroll. The Canadian sild out of turn three as he entered Casino Square going straight into the barriers, that brought out the red flag with half an hour to go.
Things weren’t going much better for team-mate Felipe Massa who could only manage thirteenth.
At the front, meanwhile it appears as this weekend could be a three horse race, between Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. However, the silver arrows appeared to struggle for pace on track.
Mercedes then did not do the usual race-simulation runs, concentrating instead on pit-stop practice.
Toro Rosso appear to be in good form as well, Daniil Kvyat used the ultrasofts early on to go fastest. Before Ricciardo went faster and then Vettel on his qualifying simulations.
There appears to be some progress from McLaren as well with both Stoffel Vandoorne and Jenson Button were just outside of the top ten. This weekend could be the best chance of the team scoring points so far this season.
Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg made up for his lack of running in FP1, he did thirty-eight laps going seventeenth. However, Jolyon Palmer’s session lasted no more than seven laps because of a technical problem.
The Sauber’s of Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein were separated by just 0.004s in 19th and 20th.
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