Hamilton keeps hopes alive, but Red Bull 'out of reach'

Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas weren't hiding the fact that they simply didn't have the pace to challenge Red Bull in today's qualifying session for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo has been out of reach of the Silver Arrows all weekend. In the end his new record pole time was over four tenths clear of the best that Hamilton could manage on Saturday.

"Congratulations to Daniel, he did a great job," said Hamilton, adding that it was what he had been expecting to see at Monaco. "They've had the pace all weekend. We knew that this would be the case.

"I gave it everything I could," he added. "I don't know if he improved on the last lap - I was up a little bit but I wasn't able to hold on to it."

In the end, Hamilton was pipped to second place on the front row by title rival Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari. But the world champion wasn't giving up hope of bouncing back in the Grand Prix itself.

"A long race ahead of us tomorrow," he said, pointing out that there were still a lot of unknowns. Everyone had been focused on getting to know the new pink hypersoft compounds, but teams will have to use other compounds in the race.

"I don't know if these guys have even tried the other tyres so it will be interesting to see how we all go," he said. "We're just going to make sure we're on our toes and ready to react tomorrow."

After the team's domination in the last race in Spain, it was a surprise to see the W09 struggling so much in Monaco.

• Brilliant Ricciardo claims Monaco pole with unbeatable record pace

"Naturally we've got 21 races so the engineers have to be smart in making sure the car works in the majority," the driver explained.

"There's only a couple of slow ones [like Monaco]. We don't mind if Red Bull are quick here because hopefully we'll have the upper hand in places like Barcelona

"There's more tracks like Barcelona and medium speed circuits, so we'll try and capitalise on those ones."

Hamilton agreed that the principle problem Mercedes faced in Monaco was a lack of grip. That was confirmed by his team mate, Valtteri Bottas.

"I would say the main limitation was over grip rather than balance," said the Finn. "I felt like we were sliding around and lacking grip.

"We knew it would be more difficult. We think we've got the set-up much better than [Thursday]," he continued. "It felt a lot nicer to drive.

"I haven't seen my lap compared to Lewis but there was a couple of tenths I think."

Bottas ended the session just slower than Kimi Raikkonen. He'll start tomorrow's race from fifth position, and he was making no predictions about whether he would be able to make it onto the podium.

"I don't know - we'll see tomorrow. Still anything can happen," he said, pointing out that at least one of the Red Bulls was out of the running after gearbox issues prevented Max Verstappen from taking part in qualifying.

"For sure it's kind of a good thing for us that at least one of them is behind," said Bottas of Verstappen's back row start. "We got lucky there for us.

"Red Bull are so quick here that they're out of reach," he admitted. "But let's see tomorrow."

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