Monaco GP 2018
MAY 26, 2018
Practice 3 Report - Fast and crash
© The Cahier Archive
By Dan Knutson in Monaco
Max Verstappen had set the fastest lap time with a dozen minutes remaining in Free Practice 3. But then he crashed into the barriers at the Swimming Pool turns and caused the session to be red flagged. His Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo then went out in the waning minutes and posted the fastest time by a mere 0.001 of a second ahead of Verstappen.
The line-up for the weekend was: Mercedes - Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas; Ferrari - Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen; Red Bull TAG Heuer - Ricciardo and Verstappen; Force India Mercedes - Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon; Williams Mercedes -Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin; McLaren Renault - Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne; Renault - Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz; Toro Rosso Honda - Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly; Haas Ferrari - Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen; Sauber Ferrari - Marcus Ericsson and Charles Leclerc.
Ricciardo was quickest in Thursday practice with a time of 1:11.841 on Pirelli's hyper soft compound slicks.
"It is going to tighten up on Saturday," he said of rival teams after FP2. "But all we can do today is try and top it and we did. A good start, both cars are strong. Our long run looked decent. It is not everything around here, but we seem to good in all conditions at the moment."
Vandoorne and Leclerc led the cars out when the green light came on at pit exit.
The ambient temperature at the start of the 60-minute session was 73 degrees Fahrenheit (23 degrees Centigrade) and the track temperature was 106 degrees Fahrenheit (41 degrees Centigrade).
Raikkonen set the early fast lap with a 1:13.033, but nobody was all that anxious to lay down a time just yet. But Bottas had a spin at the first turn.
Things sped up 15 minutes into the session when Hamilton posted a 1:12.969 on the hypers, and Vettel beat that with a 1:12.482.
Next, Ricciardo shaved that down to a 1:12.449.
Twenty minutes into the session Verstappen moved up front with a 1:12.336.
Next, Ricciardo shaved that down to a 1:12.237. Verstappen answered with a 1:11.990 and a 1:11.787. Ricciardo got it down to 1:11.920. All of this on the hypers.
Behind the Red Bull duo the rest of the top 10 were: Vettel, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Vettel, Hamilton, Hartley, Vandoorne, Sirotkin and Bottas at the halfway mark.
Then things calmed down as many of the drivers headed for the pits to prepare for their qualifying simulations.
Bottas was one of the first, and he moved up to fifth. Then Hamilton took fifth from his teammate.
The top four - Verstappen, Ricciardo, Vettel and Raikkonen - were all in the pits with 12 minutes to go, and all the rest were on track.
Ricciardo headed out with 11 remaining as did the other three.
With nine minutes remaining the red flags came out as Verstappen slammed the barriers at Turn 16 - the swimming pool turns.
The clock wound down as the marshals cleaned up the debris. Four minutes remained when the session restarted. So the drivers who went out would get one shot at a final fast lap.
Ricciardo clocked a new unofficial lap record of 1:11.786 - just 0.001 of a second quicker than Verstappen's best.
The top 10 are the end of FP3 were: Ricciardo, Verstappen, Vettel, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Bottas, Hartley, Gasly, Sainz, and Sirotkin.