Red Bull 'not too far off' in Monaco after Thursday practice

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Red Bull was encouraged by a solid showing in practice in Monaco. Drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen both felt they were closing the gap on rivals Ferrari and Mercedes this week.

"It was okay. For a Thursday here, I’m pretty pleased," said Ricciardo, who was second fastest in FP2 albeit almost two seconds behind Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

"I feel we've got back in that groove around here and tonight we'll work on the car," Ricciardo continued.

"There are a few things we need to work on but generally we’re there, we're in the window where we need to be, we're not a second off or anything.

"I think we'll do some small tweaks tonight to prepare for Saturday, but I don't think we need to do too much at the moment."

With Mercedes admitting that they had wasted the afternoon session after going the wrong way on set-up, Ricciardo said it was better to be conservative at Monaco.

“Especially around a street circuit, you're better off driving a car that you know as opposed to turning it upside down," he commented. "That can take confidence away from you.

"To drive this track it's so fun, I think regardless of how the car feels it's fun nonetheless," he added.

Vettel takes charge in Monaco for FP2

"It was quite a good day. We were not too far off," contributed Verstappen. "I stayed out of the walls which is always good.

He said that being cautious around Monaco wasn't a viable option.

"If you take it easy you are last. Everybody is pushing. But the margins are so limited on this track so as soon as you have a little slide you are in the wall.

"If you can get the tyres in the right window that’s always very positive. Today we haven’t done that fully. It was a bit of a messy second practice. But still, we're not that far off.

Although he didn't hit the barriers, he did sustain damage to the floor of the RB13 when cutting across the Nouvelle Chicane in FP1.

"It was coming into the swimming poor. You have the left and then the right curb. I don't know what happened - I touched it twice and it was already damaged."

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Gallery: All the pictures from Thursday in Monaco

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.