It was supposed to be the weekend where Red Bull finally challenged Mercedes. To come away with 15 points while Mercedes came away with 43 can only be seen as a failure at Monaco after so much promise.
Daniel Ricciardo looked absolutely on top form in practice, while Vettel continued to struggle, but the German was still right up there on race pace. On one-lap pace, Red Bull looked within fractions of Mercedes, however that wasn’t the case when it mattered. Both drivers clearly looked annoyed, as they were probably not helped either by Nico Rosberg’s mistake on the final flying lap.
No. 1 Sebastian Vettel has more problems
Q: P4
R: Retired on lap 5 – Turbo
When will the problems end for Vettel? He done a brilliant job to be one and a half tenths off his teammate without ERS in qualifying, and then had a better start than his teammate to come out ahead of him into turn 1. He suffered a turbo failure and had to retire the car for the second time in six races.
No. 3 Daniel Ricciardo with another podium
Q: P3
R: P3
Ricciardo was one of the unsung heroes of the weekend. He looked absolutely brilliant to watch in free practice, making it look effortless. In fact, it’s almost as if he’s driving more like Vettel than what Vettel is doing. He had a poor start again, losing out to his teammate and the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, into fifth place. This became fourth when his teammate and then became third after Raikkonen suffered contact with a backmarker. He challenged Hamilton towards the end of the race, but couldn’t find a way past the partially-blinded Brit and took third, again.
Canada is the next circuit, one of the ones where the horsepower deficit will become much more apparent. It could well be a case of damage limitation, as the Mercedes and to a degree the Ferrari-Powered cars are expected to go very well there. There are a few medium speed corners where Red Bull can make up a little bit of time, but the top 10 may be tough there.
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