Following Lewis Hamilton setting the fastest lap in Free Practice 1, Sebastian Vettel fired back as he topped the timesheets in the second practice session of the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix.
The Scuderia Ferrari driver had his session delayed after the team found a problem with a sensor just before the green light, but once he left the pits, he set a flying lap time of 1:12.720 to push passed Daniel Ricciardo. For the Red Bull Racing driver, he was unable to regain the top spot, after knocking off Daniil Kvyat with a time of 1:13.280. Ricciardo was able to improve from this time to finish with a time of 1:13.207, but it just wasn’t enough for the Australian.
The latest lap times show just how much the Formula 1 cars have improved over the last year after Vettel and Ricciardo both push their cars to see a time faster than Lewis Hamilton‘s FP1 time of 1:13.425. These times are faster than 2017 Ricciardo’s pole time of 1:13.622 last year as well as Kimi Raikkonen‘s pole time in 2006 of 1:13.532. With the new regulations introduction this season this has made the cars faster.
Improving from his Free Practice 1 time of 1:14.164, Raikkonen finished FP2 with a time of 1:13.283, finishing ahead of the first Scuderia Toro Rosso of Kvyat. Kvyat had a strong session as he set an impressive time of 1:13.331 to lead the session for some time, but couldn’t hold on until the end. Behind him was his team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr, who performed similarly to Kvyat and ended the session in fifth, improving massively from FP1.
Max Verstappen finished with a time of 1:13.486 to see him finish sixth, he had a good session after briefly running in second behind Kvyat, but couldn’t do much better to reflect his performance from this morning. Behind Verstappen was the first Sahara Force India F1 Team driver of Sergio Perez with a time of 1:13.799, a good improvement from his performance in FP1. The Mexican finished ahead of Hamilton, who set the fastest lap time in FP1.
This was a disappointing session for Hamilton, as his fastest lap time was 1:13.873, a step in the wrong direction for Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team. Kevin Magnussen split the two Mercedes’ drivers as he finished in ninth, a good improvement from his FP1 performance. Valtteri Bottas finished the top ten with a time of 1:13.902, like team-mate Hamilton, he could not replicate the pace shown in FP1.
Stoffel Vandoorne set an impressive time of 1:13.946 to finish the session ahead of McLaren-Honda Formula 1 team-mate Jenson Button, who returns to the championship to stand in for Fernando Alonso, who will be contesting the Indy 500 this weekend.
Felipe Massa finished the session behind Button in thirteenth, with a time of 1:14.003, finishing ahead of the second Haas F1 Team of Romain Grosjean.
Grosjean had a small error, as he ran wide at Mirabeau, where he brought out briefly the yellow flag. He managed to set a fastest lap time of 1:14.022, he finished ahead of the second Force India of Esteban Ocon. For Ocon this weekend is his first Monaco Grand Prix, meaning the track is all new to him. He had a shunt with the wall which led to him returning to the pits for his mechanics to check over the VJM10. Before the incident he was running in seventh, with everything looking ok, he was able to return but dropped down to fifteenth.
The second Williams of Lance Stroll finished in sixteenth, his performance was hindered by a crash into the barrier at Massenet/Casino Square. Initially, this led to a Virtual Safety Car but then a Red Flag as the marshals had to remove the damaged FW38 from the track. The Canadian crashed in a similar way to Verstappen last year. Nico Hulkeneberg finished the session in seventeenth, with a time of 1:14.870.
This finish was ahead of the second Renault Sport Formula 1 driver of Jolyon Palmer, the Briton had an eventful session after he was told to stop by his engineer at Portier. Smoke could be seen pouring from the rear of his RS17, he only managed to complete eight laps before the engine failure. Marcus Ericsson finished ahead of his Sauber F1 Team team-mate Pascal Wehrlein by only 0.004 seconds.
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