Ricciardo leads Red bull 1-2 in opening practice in Monaco

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Daniel Ricciardo edged out team mate Max Verstappen to put Red Bull ahead of the field in the opening practice session for this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix.

The senior bulls achieved their fastest on the pink hypersoft tyre, as did fellow front-running followers Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

Monaco Grand Prix - Free Practice 1

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:12.126s		36
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:12.280s	+ 0.154s	25
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:12.480s	+ 0.354s	34
4	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:13.041s	+ 0.915s	40
5	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:13.066s	+ 0.940s	38
6	Carlos Sainz	Renault	1:13.456s	+ 1.330s	40
7	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:13.502s	+ 1.376s	39
8	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1:13.717s	+ 1.591s	39
9	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:13.943s	+ 1.817s	24
10	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	1:13.962s	+ 1.836s	40
11	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1:14.000s	+ 1.874s	39
12	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	1:14.034s	+ 1.908s	46
13	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	1:14.134s	+ 2.008s	38
14	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	1:14.240s	+ 2.114s	38
15	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:14.291s	+ 2.165s	37
16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	1:14.521s	+ 2.395s	39
17	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:14.637s	+ 2.511s	16
18	Lance Stroll	Williams	1:14.782s	+ 2.656s	43
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:15.206s	+ 3.080s	39
20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:18.801s	+ 6.675s	7

The bulk of the field kicked off FP1 and their installation laps on Pirelli's hypersoft tyre, a compound that will be omnipresent this weekend.

Hamilton and Bottas swapped positions at the top the timesheet in the early part of the session, but an up-to-speed Daniel Ricciardo soon overhauled both Silver Arrows.

The weekend's first yellow flag was brandished after just 15 minutes, courtesy of Williams' Sergey Sirotkin strangely hitting the pitwall on the inside as he came out of the final corner.

Verstappen took over from his team mate at the top but the Aussie recouped the lead while Vettel moved himself and Ferrari into the top three around 30 minutes in to the session.

Engine deficit reduced in Monaco say Red Bull drivers

Red Bull's duo continued to lay down the markers however with Maximum Max deposing once again the Honey Badger, with both bulls running on the hypersoft rubber.

Meanwhile, down at McLaren, Fernando Alonso was complaining of a long brake pedal. The team's initial diagnosis found nothing wrong but given the persistence of the issue, the crew decided to take the floor off the Spaniard's MCL33 to investigate more thoroughly.

Halfway through the session, Lewis Hamilton upped the pace, achieving a benchmark time of 1m12.480s that put him at the top of the leaderboard and 0.243s clear of Verstappen.

The 20-year-old fought back immediately however, edging out the Mercedes by 0.114s before heading down the Ste Devote escape road after a massive lock-up.

The Red Bull driver's reverse move back on to the track was frowned upon however by the stewards who decided to investigate the driver for "failing to rejoin the track in a safe manner".

Back at the tail end of the field, Alonso was joined by both Haas drivers in the "minimum number of laps accomplished" department, with McLaren and the US outfit dealing with their respective issues.

With twenty minutes to go in the first practice session, Ricciardo again deposed his team mate with a 1m12.126s lap that put him 0154s clear of Verstappen.

Positions remained unchanged at the front, the Milton Keynes-based outfit and its two bulls confirming at the outset their status as favourites for the Monaco Grand Prix.

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Michael Delaney