Monaco – Free Practice 2: Daniel Ricciardo and Red Bull leave the competition behind

After the best time by both Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen this morning, this second free practice session will be of crucial importance for the competition.

If the agility of the Austrian single-seaters worked miracles on Hyper soft tires this morning, the power development of the Mercedes and Ferrari could offer a glimpse of a three-way battle for pole position tomorrow.

The temperatures keep rising in the Principality and are nearing 40 degrees on the track. The drivers don’t need to be asked twice to leave the pits and set an initial time on the board to acclimate and tame the track while avoiding the barriers, unlike Sergey Sirotkin and Romain Grosjean this morning who both narrowly avoided disaster.

Max Verstappen, briefly concerned about a potential penalty following a reverse in the Sainte Dévote escape road, has finally been cleared of all suspicion and can participate in the session without pressure.

Sebastian Vettel on ultra-softs is the first to set a significant benchmark at 1:13.180, more than a second off the best time from FP1. Both Mercedes and both Red Bulls are slow to come out on track.

Under pressure for a few weeks due to persistent rumors about his possible replacement after the Monaco weekend, Brandon Hartley is having a promising start to the Grand Prix. In FP1, he was 0.2 seconds ahead of Pierre Gasly and currently ranks third in the provisional standings of FP2 after 20 minutes of the session, 0.5 seconds ahead of his teammate at Toro Rosso.

FASTEST SECTORS: 👏 @BrendonHartley #MonacoGP 🇲🇨 #F1 pic.twitter.com/SKQdMmifzS

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Barely on the track, Max Verstappen and Red Bull took the lead of the standings with a blistering time of 1.12.071. The Dutchman was even improving before a red flag interrupted his effort. A faulty drain cover between turn 4 and turn 5 needs to be repaired by the marshals.

After a fairly long interruption, the session resumes and it’s a free-for-all on the track. Kimi Räikkönen complains about the traffic while his teammate, Sebastian Vettel, seems best equipped to chase Verstappen’s time. However, the four-time German world champion falls short by three-tenths behind the Red Bull, even being surpassed by Daniel Ricciardo, who posts a nice second best time, 18 thousandths behind his teammate.

At the bottom of the standings, the situation for McLaren is worrying. Having very little track time this morning due to various mechanical problems, Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne are positioned at the 19th and 20th places, respectively. However, after a fast lap on Hyper softs, the Spaniard clinches the Top 10 and secures the 9th rank, still relatively far from Verstappen’s best time, with equal engines. Vandoorne performs a bit better than his teammate and surpasses him in 8th place.

Alonso now up to P9 (1.170s off VER pace) #MonacoGP 🇲🇨 #F1 pic.twitter.com/7J7BN5Yaca

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On the other hand, the situation is not improving in the Haas garage. Both drivers are at a standstill, and the mechanics are busy with tools in hand. Romain Grosjean is 18th in the standings, nearly two seconds behind Verstappen, and Kevin Magnussen is 16th.

20 minutes before the end of the session, Daniel Ricciardo returns to the track with a new set of Hyper Soft tires. In no time, the Australian sets a blistering pace at the wheel of his Red Bull and literally shatters the track record by clocking an excellent 1:11.841! It’s now confirmed, the Austrian cars are the favorites this weekend.

Hampered by the long interruption in the middle of sessions, several drivers took advantage of the last few minutes to test their race pace, either on Super soft tires or worn Hyper soft ones. According to Pirelli, the strategy should not hold any surprises here, but the wear window for the softest tires is likely to be narrow.

Behind the three fastest teams, Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes, the midfield battle is between Renault and McLaren. Nico Hülkenberg is 7th, Vandoorne and Alonso are 8th and 9th, and Carlos Sainz is 10th ahead of Toro Rosso and Force India by a few tenths.

The best times will not improve, and the day ends with a new best time from Daniel Ricciardo, ahead of his Red Bull teammate, Max Verstappen.

The complete ranking of FP2:

FP2 CLASSIFICATION: Confirmation of @redbullracing‘s dominance #MonacoGP 🇲🇨 #F1 pic.twitter.com/92hVs6bjgv

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