Daniel Ricciardo believes the others will “turn it up” over the weekend but is pleased to have topped both sessions on Thursday at the Circuit de Monaco.
The Australian was a tenth quicker than his team-mate Max Verstappen in first practice and by two tenths in the afternoon as Aston Martin Red Bull Racing dominated Thursday at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Ricciardo admitted this is a place he loves driving round and felt it was “pretty cool” to have broken the lap record but thinks he will go quicker on Saturday.
“This is a place I always love driving.
“It helps when you’re fast but regardless it’s just so much fun driving an F1 car around here.
“Having the hypersoft tyre gives us that little bit more grip and it’s pretty cool to be breaking lap records.
“I’m glad that was the fastest lap that anyone has ever done as it felt so quick, but I think on Saturday we will go even quicker again.
“Some parts of the track are just amazing, Tabac and Turn 12 in particular are a lot of fun.”
Ricciardo qualified on pole in 2016 and hopes he can try and dominate all weekend but is aware of both Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport and Scuderia Ferrari being a lot quicker on Saturday during qualifying.
“The intention this weekend is to try and win and be dominant.
“Both cars today ran really well in the sessions and Max and I were fighting for the top spot all day.
“I think come Qualifying the others will turn it up and I’m sure it will tighten up as you never know what the other teams are doing, but all we could do today was try and top the times, which is what we have done.”
