This week we look back at a glorious weekend for Daniel Ricciardo and Red Bull at the Monaco Grand Prix of 2018. There were some bitter memories from 2016, as Ricciardo who was set for victory in Monte Carlo, lost the win to Lewis Hamilton after an agonisingly slow pit stop, which was very uncommon for Red Bull. The normally cheerful Daniel Ricciardo, rightfully, couldn’t hide his pain at the loss and aimed to right that wrong in 2018.
Qualifying
Not many overtakes occur at Monaco, so qualifying position was key. It was, and still remains one of the most important qualifying sessions on the calendar. Ricciardo’s teammate, Max Verstappen did not participate in the session as a gearbox change was due for the young driver and there was not enough time to change it and run the car in the session. A yellow flag in the last minute of Q1 due to Sauber’s Charles Leclerc brought it to a shaky end, meaning anyone behind the Monegasque driver could not complete their final lap. At the end of Q1 Hartley, Ericsson, Stroll, Magnussen and Verstappen were out.
Nico Hulkenberg of Renault just missed out on Q3 behind Pierre Gasly, outqualifyied by his teammate Carlos Sainz for the second time in a row after he had been dominating the Spaniard all season. Drivers out in Q2 were Hulkenberg, Vandoorne, Sirotkin, Leclerc and Grosjean.
The final showdown in Q3 was the defining moment of the weekend, heaps of pressure to get that perfect lap. Luckily for Ricciardo, he was in a world of his own, setting a lap time that put him on provisional pole by four tenths of a second, followed by Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel who were battling it out for the championship. On the final flying lap, Vettel was able to take second place from Hamilton, sealing the pole position for Ricciardo and Red Bull- the second at Monaco for the Aussie.
Race
Ricciardo and Vettel were close at the start after getting off the line quite well but the Red Bull driver kept the German behind him. His teammate Verstappen, who started at the back of the grid due to not participating in qualifying made up places on the opening lap by overtaking Grosjean and Magnussen. The Dutch man was up to 16th by lap 7.
A smooth pitstop for Ricciardo on lap 17 by Red Bull as they aimed to cover off their rivals, Ferrari who had already sent Vettel in for a pitstop. By lap 28 panic set in for Ricciardo and the Red Bull team as Ricciardo reported that he was “losing power” to his team over the radio, to which they unfortunately told him that the problem “would not get any better”.
Fernando Alonso of McLaren had to retire the car due to a gearbox issue, while the battle for 9th place was getting interesting between Sainz and Verstappen who had made his way up the field. Sainz, in defending against Verstappen, cut the chicane but the Red Bull driver did not wait for the stewards intervention and overtook Sainz himself.
On lap 72 Brendan Hartley was warned by his team that Leclerc behind him had a problem but just seconds later Leclerc went right into the back of Hartley due to a brake failure- resulting in a DNF in his first ever home grand Prix.
Ricciardo managed the issue with his car well, winning the grand prix by 7.8 seconds to Vettel and Hamilton. Second place for Vettel meant that he closed the gap to Hamilton in the championship to 14 points. It is from this race win we have the iconic image of Ricciardo diving into the famous Red Bull swimming pool.
Hope you enjoyed that trip to the past! Make sure to stay tuned for future Flashback Fridays! You can find more content here on the blog and on our social media.
Written by Leslie Okafor
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