Seldom in Formula One have two team-mates conveyed a starker contrast of emotions. While Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo flashed that magnetic Australian smile, having surged to pole position with the fastest lap ever recorded around the streets of Monte Carlo, Max Verstappen was a study in torment, after a sixth crash in six race weekends relegated him to dead last on the grid.
A stellar young driver the Dutchman might be, but in the depths of his latest humiliation, he looked like a scolded schoolboy.
Where Ricciardo took a congratulatory phone call on the tarmac from Dietrich Mateschitz, Red Bull’s secretive billionaire owner, after a blistering lap of 1min 11.810sec, Verstappen received a firm warning from team principal Christian Horner that patience was wearing thin.
The bald truth is that Verstappen is making far too many mistakes to be tolerated much longer. The ill-tempered flick of the hand with which Dr Helmut Marko, the redoubtable sporting director, dismissed him from the garage spoke volumes. There is a palpable sense, after a series of avoidable smashes this season, that his employers are tired of listening to his excuses.
Ricciardo, conversely, did not disguise his delight after only the second pole of his career – even if he acknowledged that the job was “only 50 per cent done”. The memory remains raw of his experience here in 2016, when he started from the front, only to have the chance of victory snatched away by a pit-stop mix-up, where his tyres were not ready in time.
He still faces a daunting task here to deliver a win on Sunday afternoon, finding himself in a pincer movement between two four-time world champions, with Sebastian Vettel alongside him on the front row and Lewis Hamilton directly behind him in third. For Vettel, there was a certain relief, with the FIA deciding not to impose any penalty on Ferrari after an investigation into whether the Italian team’s engines were producing an illegal power boost.
For Verstappen, though, the inquest goes on. The Dutchman, who turns 21 in September, has had four F1 drives in Monte Carlo and crashed every time. Worryingly, he seems not to have learned from any of them. His misjudgment on Saturday was almost an exact replica of his error here in 2016, right down to the kerb where he wobbled and the barrier into which his car careered.
Opting for one last run in third practice, he veered off course in trying to clear the Renault of Carlos Sainz, clipping the inside wall at the swimming pool chicane, an impact that broke the steering and propelled him into the steel barriers on the opposite side.
He cut a crestfallen figure, but this was less an aberration than part of a trend. Remarkably, Verstappen has now damaged or written off his Red Bull six times in a row. For a team with legitimate Championship ambitions, whose superiority is most pronounced here on the Cote d’Azur, this is unconscionable. Horner did not tone down his frustration, pointing out that Verstappen’s lapse was both careless and wholly unnecessary.
“This place bites, and Max got bitten pretty hard in a session that doesn’t really count for anything, other than setting the car up,” Horner said. “He’s in a car that’s capable of winning this grand prix. He needs to learn from it and stop making these mistakes. He knows that more than anybody, and I imagine it was a pretty painful qualifying for him, watching what could have been.”
Despite the car’s shredded front section, Red Bull’s mechanics toiled gamely to complete the repairs in the two-hour window before qualifying began, ultimately to no avail. As if all this frantic drama were not galling enough for Verstappen, he was given a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, the only saving grace being that he starts at the back in any case. He was in a truculent mood on Saturday evening, saying: “It’s not right that it happened.”
Still, he would accept blame for just two of the six incidents in which he has been embroiled in 2018. Besides this latest brain-fade, he took responsibility only for his collision with Sebastian Vettel in Shanghai last month, which had prompted Horner to urge him to take more care. Increasingly, it appears the message is failing to filter through.
As it stands, Verstappen is still an untouchable property, who has only recently signed a three-year contract extension at Red Bull. He won two of the final four races last year and has become the figure around whom the team are planning their future. But Marko is notorious for having a ruthless streak: in 2016, Russia’s Daniil Kvyat was demoted to Toro Rosso, Red Bull’s second team, after a sequence of blunders. At this rate, Verstappen risks the same exemplary punishment.
Final positions after qualifying:
- 1 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Red Bull 1min 10.810secs
- 2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari 1:11.039
- 3 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:11.232
- 4 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:11.266
- 5 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Mercedes GP 1:11.441
- 6 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Force India 1:12.061
- 7 Fernando Alonso (Spa) McLaren 1:12.110
- 8 Carlos Sainz (Spa) Renault 1:12.130
- 9 Sergio Perez (Mex) Force India 1:12.154
- 10 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:12.221
- 11 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Renault 1:12.411
- 12 Stoffel Vandoorne (Bel) McLaren 1:12.440
- 13 Sergey Sirotkin (Rus) Williams 1:12.521
- 14 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Sauber-Ferrari 1:12.714
- 15 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Haas F1 1:12.728
- 16 Brendon Hartley (Nzl) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:13.179
- 17 Marcus Ericsson (Swe) Sauber-Ferrari 1:13.265
- 18 Lance Stroll (Can) Williams 1:13.323
- 19 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 1:13.393
- 20 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull No Time
That's it from us today...
We will be back tomorrow at around 1pm for all the build-up, live updates of the race and the following reaction. Daniel Ricciardo has been imperious this weekend, topping every single session. The race tomorrow, is another thing, but if he can emerge from the first corner in the lead then that could be that. But error is never far away in Monaco and 70-odd laps around this intense, twisty and tight historic street circuit is a big ask of anyone.
There will be much to keep an eye on further down the field as well, with title rivals Vettel and Hamilton lining up in second and third. See you tomorrow. In the mean-time, here's a happy Aussie.
Alonso reacts
We were P15 [in final practice]. We were very worried about qualifying. P7 - it feels fantastic and hopefully tomorrow we'll see a good race.
Yet again he extracts the maximum out of the car. A podium isn't out of the question tomorrow if there are a few retirements ahead of him. It's possible. A safety car is almost a certainty.
All just a little bit of history repeating for Max Verstappen
Wrecked his car and his weekend in one go with this shunt in final practice. His gearbox needed changing and he wasn't able to take part in qualifying. The Dutchman starts from last tomorrow on a track where overtaking is almost impossible and where he has the fastest car. Not what he needed. So many costly errors from him this year.
Hamilton reacts
Congrats to Daniel, he did a great job. I was up a little bit but wasn't able to hold onto it. We're just going to make sure we're on our toes and ready to react tomorrow. It's a question of grip, mostly.
He raises the question of how the Red Bulls will treat the other tyre compounds tomorrow. Let's see.
Q3 - six minutes to go
Raikkonen abandons his hot lap. He's in P4. Classification after the first runs:
1. Ricciardo
2. Hamilton (+0.451)
3. Vettel (+0.453)
4. Raikkonen (+0.456)
5. Bottas (+0.743)
6. Sainz (+1.456)
7. Alonso (+1.489)
8. Perez (+1.773)
9. Ocon (+1.859)
10. Gasly (2.305)
Look how close it is between Hamilton and Raikkonen! Close between Sainz and Alonso, too. What will the final runs bring us?
Q3 - what can Vettel do?
It's an 18.7 first sector...the same as Hamilton and Bottas. A tenth down on Ricciardo. His second sector is 0.25 down on Ricciardo. Will it be second or third? He goes in deep into Rascasse. It's only good enough for third!
Raikkonen meanwhile stays out for another hot lap.
That's 6-0 to Alonso in qualifying
Vandoorne did not have the pace to challenge his team-mate again.
Into Q3:
1. Ricciardo
2. Raikkonen
3. Vettel
4. Hamilton
5. Bottas
6. Ocon
7. Perez
8. Alonso
9. Sainz
10. Gasly
A little mixed up, you'd say. A Red Bull, two Ferraris, two Mercedes cars, two Force Indias, a McLaren, Renault and Toro Rosso.
Q2 ends...Ricciardo quickest
Can anyone else find some time? It doesn't look like it. Hulkenberg can't find the time and he's out and out-qualified by Sainz for the second time in two races. Grosjean not happy with being P15. "Fudge," he says.
OUT:
11. Hulkenberg
12. Vandoorne
13. Sirotkin
14. Leclerc
15. Grosjean
Q2 - 12 minutes to go
The first runs are underway, some of the slower runners out already. Ocon goes quickest before being ousted by Alonso and then Perez. Vettel then blows them out of the water - unsurprisingly - with a 1.11.518...that also doesn't last long, Daniel Ricciardo sets a new lap record 0.165s ahead of Vettel. Not a huge gap. What can Mercedes manage on the ultrasofts? Not a lot...Bottas in P11. They will have to go to the softer hypersofts, you'd have thought.
Q1 - 10 minutes to go - Raikkonen quickest
The Finn was blocked in the tunnel by a Mercedes, not sure who it was. Alonso currently second and Sirotkin third. Stroll's headrest is loose. Contrasting fortunes for Williams drivers.
Drivers in the drop zone:
- Gasly
- Magnussen
- Ericsson
- Hulkenberg
- Verstappen (will not set a lap time)
David Coutlhard on Williams's woes
As somebody who is appreciative of Williams for giving me my opportunity, and as a fan of the history of the team, it is difficult to watch them go through their difficulties at the moment. If you were to poll the paddock, there would not be too many people putting Lance Stroll or Sergey Sirotkin in their top 10 drivers – that is not to be disrespectful, but to point out that they are, largely, unknown quantities. I believe that there is enough spirit in their DNA for them to work their way out of it.
...Ferrari's engine...
With the story that Ferrari are under scrutiny for potentially breaking Formula One engine rules, there is clearly no smoke without fire. If the power boost that Ferrari are receiving is found to be of a sufficient extreme, then the FIA would have to step in and give the team a slap on the wrist. What this episode shows is that while the teams read the rules to see what they say, they also look for what the rules do not say – and what they never say is where the opportunities lie.
And Hamilton's contract situation
Lewis Hamilton’s contract situation might be dragging on, but it is all a negotiation. Essentially, it comes down to his image rights, and what restrictions that might impose on him to pursue other avenues that he finds interesting and lucrative. Famously, Ayrton Senna signed one of his contracts at the last minute, having turned up from Brazil the night before. Lewis will want all the freedom that he believes he deserves away from Formula One. He is a key asset and a huge income-generator for Mercedes. The strength of the relationship between Lewis and the team is not in doubt. It is all the other detail – what corporate events he turns up at, for example – that needs to be thrashed out.
Senna's legendary 1988 pole lap recreated
F1 game creators Codemasters and Murray Walker got together to re-imagine Ayrton Senna's sensational 1988 Monaco pole lap. The McLaren-Honda driver outqualified his team-mate Alain Prost (who was fairly handy...) by an incredible 1.4 seconds. Senna would describe the lap as an "out-of-body experience". Murray Walker not doing too badly for a 94-year-old, either. "Just look at that!" as the great man might say.
Despite dominating all weekend, though, he shoved it into the barriers at Portier, retiring from the lead and giving the victory to Prost. The dangers of Monaco. Take nothing for granted.
Ferrari under scrutiny over power 'boost' ahead of Monaco Grand Prix
In a twist ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, Ferrari are under scrutiny for potentially breaking Formula One’s engine rules. Amid concerns from rivals that the Italian team are receiving an illegal power boost via an energy recovery system, the FIA, the sport’s governing body, has compelled the Scuderia to incorporate an extra piece of hardware into their cars to ensure they are not gaining an unfair advantage.
Read Oliver Brown's piece on the latest developments in this case.
What to look out for in today's qualifying
- Traffic jams - the shortest, tightest and slowest track on the calendar, fitting 20 cars onto the circuit, with some on hot laps, some on out laps and the rest on in laps is a complete nightmare for the teams. The track "rubbering in" as the session goes on is also key, meaning the later you go out, the better the conditions will be. But leave it too late and there's a chance of the session being red flagged.
- Q1 strugglers: Haas and Sauber have been the two slowest cars so far with Williams just in front of them. Stroll has lagged behind his team-mate Sirotkin, though, so it could be a second Q2 appearance for the Russian. There was under a second between P7 and P17 in FP3 though, so it could be all mixed up. Again.
- Tyres: The drivers who make it to Q3 start the race on the tyres they used in Q2 whilst everyone else gets a free choice. Here the hypersoft tyres are a second quicker than the ultrasoft compound, so it will be worth seeing if any teams (possibly only Red Bull) try and get through to final qualifying on ultrasoft tyres. The quickest race strategy might be to go from ultrasoft to supersoft and one stop.
- Can Ferrari crank it up? They have been known to hide their raw pace in practice so it's not impossible. However, any extra engine modes or power will have less influence around here than other tracks. So maybe not.
Final practice (FP3) classification
1 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Red Bull 1min 11.786secs
2 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:11.787
3 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari 1:12.023
4 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:12.142
5 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:12.273
6 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Mercedes GP 1:12.356
7 Brendon Hartley (Nzl) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:12.752
8 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:12.761
9 Carlos Sainz (Spa) Renault 1:12.850
10 Sergey Sirotkin (Rus) Williams 1:12.854
11 Stoffel Vandoorne (Bel) McLaren 1:12.874
12 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Force India 1:12.940
13 Sergio Perez (Mex) Force India 1:13.025
14 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Renault 1:13.112
15 Fernando Alonso (Spa) McLaren 1:13.279
16 Lance Stroll (Can) Williams 1:13.595
17 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Sauber-Ferrari 1:13.644
18 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Haas F1 1:13.881
19 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 1:14.192
20 Marcus Ericsson (Swe) Sauber-Ferrari 1:14.221
Good afternoon! Welcome to our coverage of qualifying for the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix
Around 80 minutes until the first qualifying session gets underway, with Daniel Ricciardo and Red Bull favourites to take pole. Ricciardo has topped all three practice sessions so far this weekend and the Red Bulls' pace has been electric from the word go.
Max Verstappen has been second to his team-mate in each session but his final practice ended in near-disaster earlier this morning when he whacked the barriers with his front right going into the swimming pool, damaging his suspension before careering into the barrier and wrecking his front end.
The session - which the Dutchman was leading at the time - was red flagged but there was enough time for a resumption and for Ricciardo to put in a time quicker than Verstappen's by one one-thousandth of a second.
His team face a fight to get his car ready for qualifying, but if anyone is up to it Red Bull are. Verstappen looked to have been distracted by passing Carlos Sainz's Renault on a slow lap - one of the perils of this track, especially in practice and first qualifying. "That's Monaco," his race engineer said after the crash.
Ferrari have been second quickest behind Red Bull with Mercedes third fastest. Sebastian Vettel, though, appeared to show some decent pace towards the end of final practice - finishing 0.2s down from Ricciardo, in third. This all points towards a round of damage limitation for Mercedes, who do not appear to have the pace to challenge the front row. But Monaco is unpredictable and fortunes can turn around quickly.
The Silver Arrows have healthy leads in both the drivers' and constructors' championships from Ferrari, so a Red Bull dominated weekend would not awful for them, given Ferrari's 1-2 here last year. Further down the field Haas are struggling immensely - classified 18th and 19th in FP3, with just the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson behind them. The Toro Rossos of Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly could be a decent bet to get into final qualifying, showing good pace throughout the weekend.
We'll be here for the next few hours with all the build-up, live coverage and reaction. With a short, tight track and 20 cars out for Q1 we could see plenty of luck - good and bad - and, of course, some breathtaking driving.