Monaco – Free Practice 1: Ricciardo and Verstappen on top and already beat the 2017 pole position!

It is under the sun and heat of the south of France that the long-awaited Monaco weekend begins, with the first practice session.

The track peaks at a temperature of 33 degrees before the drivers come to warm up their tires on the still green tarmac. The first to set off is Fernando Alonso in his Renault-powered McLaren, followed by his fellow drivers who will all do a check lap of their single-seaters before safely returning to the pits.

For some drivers, the Monaco Grand Prix is a unique opportunity to sport different helmet colors and pay tribute to personalities they hold dear. Valtteri Bottas, for example, chose to celebrate his compatriot and double world champion, Mika Hakkinen, by adopting the design and colors of the former McLaren driver.

🇫🇮 @ValtteriBottas‘ special Monaco GP lid!! 😍😍😍 Pure nostalgia… pic.twitter.com/5Z8KCYb307

— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) 24 mai 2018

Charles Leclerc, the local of the event, chose to pay tribute to two individuals who also greatly impacted his life as a young driver, namely his father, a former driver who passed away in 2017, and Jules Bianchi, whose memory is always celebrated on the grounds of his Formula 1 achievement.

Special Race – Special Helmet.
I will be using the helmet design of my father with an added tribute on the top and in the back of Jules and him. It was our dream to be one day racing in Monaco and I’m pretty sure Jules and him are watching from above. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/25YdhCZ6Sb

— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) 23 mai 2018

This weekend, the drivers will have at their disposal the softest range of tires offered by Pirelli: the Hyper Soft, Ultra Soft, and Super Soft. With this aggressive choice, last year’s pole position time held by Kimi Räikkönen at 1.12.178 may well be beaten!

The two Red Bulls at ease from the first stint, first scares for Sirotkin and Grosjean

Immediately, the Red Bulls take the lion’s share with the best times from Daniel Ricciardo at 1:13.744 and Max Verstappen at 1:13.975 during their first attempts, ahead of the two Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas at 1:14.347 and Lewis Hamilton at 1:14.749. The Red Bulls have already fitted the Hyper soft tires, unlike the Mercedes who opted to use the Ultrasofts.

Sergey Sirotkin is experiencing the tough learning curve of Monaco’s narrow track. He is the first driver to get caught out and makes his way slowly back to the pits, with the right rear suspension bent for the Williams driver.

As the track wears in and drivers gain confidence between the rails, lap times decrease. Ricciardo leads the standings with a time of 1.13.139 after thirty minutes of the session. He is ahead of his teammate Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari, Bottas, Brandon Hartley in the Toro Rosso, Kimi Räikkönen with the other Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly and his Toro Rosso ahead of his compatriot Esteban Ocon in the Force India, and Nico Hülkenberg who rounds out the Top 10 with the Renault.

Romain Grosjean is on the attack with his Haas. The French driver, at the center of the storm after his complicated Spanish Grand Prix, is already making sparks fly in the climb in the third sector…

“The Monaco Kiss” 💋

Grosjean gets away with a brief skim at Tabac#F1 🇲🇨 #MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/6VSMlvOfoV

— Formula 1 (@F1) 24 mai 2018

Max Verstappen is also noticed by the stewards.

The battle for the best time is in full swing. Verstappen and then Hamilton, finally equipped with Hypersoft tires, exchange the top spot with an advantage for the Dutchman at 1.12.280. It’s already very fast in this first practice session! Too fast for the stewards’ liking, who place the Red Bull driver under investigation for hurriedly rejoining the track after going through the Sainte-Dévote escape road.

In the process, the current leader heads to the pits to observe the rest of the session. His teammate takes advantage: Daniel Ricciardo moves to the top spot with 15 minutes remaining, with a time of 1:12.12.

The last minutes of this FP1 go smoothly, with no yellow flags shown. **Poleman in Monaco in 2016, the Australian from Red Bull remains on top at the end of this FP1.**

But the Mercedes team dedicated the end of their session to race stints, as evidenced by Bottas’s latest times being more behind, with an average of 1:16. The gap in pure performance between Red Bull and Ferrari is more significant, however, with nearly a second difference between Ricciardo and Vettel. It makes one wonder if the four-time German world champion pushed his hypersofts…

Behind the big names, note the fine performance of Carlos Sainz, who finished sixth and was the best midfield driver. The first Frenchman is Romain Grosjean, ninth in his Haas. On the other hand, it was a modest session for Fernando Alonso, seventeenth, with low mileage: 16 laps on track. In contrast, Lance Stroll was the most diligent, completing 43 laps during the morning.

Here is the overall ranking of the session:

For the rest, see you this afternoon, 4:30 PM, for the FP2 summary!