Ricciardo tops FP3 as Verstappen puts himself in the barriers!

©WRI

40

Daniel Ricciardo continued Red Bull's superb form in Saturday's final free practice, snatching the best time from team mate Max Verstappen after the latter crashed late in the session.

The Red Bull duo edged out the Ferrari combo of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

Monaco Grand Prix - Free Practice 3

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:11.786s		23
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:11.787s	+ 0.001s	14
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:12.023s	+ 0.237s	23
4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:12.142s	+ 0.356s	26
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:12.273s	+ 0.487s	26
6	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:12.356s	+ 0.570s	27
7	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	1:12.752s	+ 0.966s	25
8	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	1:12.761s	+ 0.975s	23
9	Carlos Sainz	Renault	1:12.850s	+ 1.064s	24
10	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	1:12.854s	+ 1.068s	23
11	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:12.874s	+ 1.088s	25
12	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1:12.940s	+ 1.154s	23
13	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1:13.025s	+ 1.239s	22
14	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	1:13.112s	+ 1.326s	26
15	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:13.279s	+ 1.493s	25
16	Lance Stroll	Williams	1:13.595s	+ 1.809s	26
17	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	1:13.644s	+ 1.858s	25
18	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:13.881s	+ 2.095s	21
19	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:14.192s	+ 2.406s	20
20	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:14.221s	+ 2.435s	28

Teams put their Friday changes through their paces in Formula 1's final dress rehearsal before this afternoon's all-important qualifying session.

It was a Ferrari 1-2 early on with Kimi Raikkonen leading Sebastian Vettel, with Mercedes' duo snapping at the Scuderia heels while Red Bull's chargers only completing installation laps in the first ten minutes of the 60-minute session.

Bottas had a moment early on, running down the escape road at Ste Devote but nudging the barrier with his rear wing as he spun around.

Raikkonen lowered the benchmark to 1m12.9 before Hamilton deposed the Finn at the top with a stint on the hypersoft rubber and a tour in 1m12.6s.

Vettel however took immediate revenge, putting Ferrari ahead once again by 0.2s.

After a cautious warm-up period, the Red Bulls got down to business with Ricciardo first lap putting him fast by 0.033s, a time that Verstappen quickly bettered.

The two drivers, outright favourites for this afternoon's qualy, continued to swap best times, the Dutchman eventually dipping into the 1m11s.

As the two drivers enjoyed their own private party at the head of the field, Ferrari regrouped behind, with Vettel and Raikkonen edging out Hamilton and Bottas.

©WRI

With just eight minutes remaining, drama ensued however when Verstappen hit the barrier at the right-hander Swimming Pool complex, putting himself out of the session and forcing a massive and hasty repair job on his Red Bull crew!

The incident brought out the red flags, but the session resumed with just three minutes of track time remaining.

That 180 seconds was all Ricciardo needed however to add a bit of salt on his tea mate's wound as he beat Verstappen's time by 0.001s!

A quartet of unexpected runners rounded off the top ten, with Brendon Hartley leading fellow Toro Rosso charger Pierre Gasly in P7 and P8, and Williams' Sergey Sirotkin putting in a good effort to place his Williams tenth, just 0.004 s behind Renault's Carlos Sainz.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Michael Delaney