Track Torque: Ricciardo beats his gremlins at Monaco
Next race is in Canada on June 10.
It was a different kind of race around the streets of Monte Carlo this time.
Daniel Ricciardo was quickest all weekend, together with his teammate Max Verstappen, who blew his chances when he crashed in the third practice run.
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Ricciardo, however, went on to not only get pole position, but also successfully fight off gremlins in his engine, which restricted him to the use of only six of his eight gears.
Without a full explanation of his problems we can’t exactly analyse why he could only use six gears, but perhaps it was to keep revs down to a more acceptable level.
Whatever the problem, he accepted the challenge and got down to it to keep his rivals at bay.
Ricciardo doggedly did this with great aplomb and won the race to the chequered flag by seven seconds from Sebastian Vettel.
Monaco is normally a race of attrition and again there were retirements and a crash, this one caused by the local Charles Leclerc running into the back of Brendon Hartley which required the virtual safety car rule to apply.
Tyres also played a very important part in the race, with four varieties of ‘soft, super, ultra and hyper’ being on offer.
Hyper soft was the quickest and it was with this apparel that Verstappen, who had started at the back of the field, finally set the fastest lap at the end of the day.
Back to race positions, behind Vettel came Lewis Hamilton who did well to get his ‘long car’ up as high as third and on to the podium.
The other Merc, driven by Valtteri Bottas, was in fifth spot behind Kimi Raikkonen in his flying Ferrari, so the two Silver Arrows did no do too badly under the circumstances.
They are likely to be much quicker on the faster circuits to come.
After Bottas came Esterban Ocon in sixth in his Force India Mercedes, while Pierre Gasly again gave us a very creditable performance in his Toro Rosso Honda for seventh position.
Nico Hulkenberg was next, after regaining eighth place back from Verstappen, who had made a last minute dash for new tyres and that lap record in 9th.
Final points position went to Carlos Sainz in his Renault after working very hard all weekend for his money.
The race will be remembered, in particular by Ricciardo for his Schumacher type rescue to win a race down on power and minus two gears.
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Roll on Canada in a fortnight’s time.
Drivers: Lewis Hamilton 110, Sebastian Vettel 96, Daniel Ricciardo 72.
Teams: Mercedes 178, Ferrari 156, Red Bull 107.
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