Monaco Grand Prix: Qualifying Recap

Event:  Qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix (Round 6 of 21)

Date:  Saturday, May 26

Location:  Circuit de Monaco

Layout:  3.337-kilometer (2.074-mile), 19-turn track

Weather:  Sunny

Air Temps:  25.7-27.5 degrees Celsius (78.3-81.5 degrees Fahrenheit)

Track Temps:  45.9-49 degrees Celsius (114.6-120.2 degrees Fahrenheit)

Pole Winner:  Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull (1:10.810 – new track record)

Result:  Romain Grosjean qualified 15th / Kevin Magnussen qualified 19th  

Note:  Due to a three-place grid penalty stemming from the preceding Spanish Grand Prix, Grosjean will start 18th on Sunday in the Monaco Grand Prix.

●  Lasts 18 minutes, with all 20 drivers participating

●  Fastest 15 drivers advance to Q2

Grosjean:  11th quick (1:12.930), advanced to Q2

Magnussen:  19th quick (1:13.393)

Fastest Driver:  Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull (1:12.013)

Cutoff:  15th-quick Nico Hulkenberg of Renault (1:13.065)

●  Lasts 15 minutes, featuring the 15 fastest drivers from Q1

●  Fastest 10 drivers advance to Q3

Grosjean:  15th quick (1:12.728)

Fastest Driver:  Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull (1:11.278)

Cutoff:  10th-quick Pierre Gasly of Toro Rosso (1:12.313)

●  Lasts 12 minutes, featuring the 10 fastest drivers from Q2, all battling for the pole

Pole Winner:  Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull (1:10.810)

Second:  Sebastian Vettel of Scuderia Ferrari (1:11.039)

Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen qualified 15th and 19th, respectively, for the Monaco Grand Prix Sunday at Circuit de Monaco. Grosjean, however, will start 18th as he must serve a three-place grid penalty stemming from the preceding Spanish Grand Prix.

Grosjean set the 11th-fastest time in Q1 with a lap of 1:12.930 around the 3.337-kilometer (2.074-mile), 19-turn track to comfortably make the top-15 cutoff and advance to Q2. Magnussen was 19th quickest with a lap of 1:13.393. A local yellow flag in the final minutes of Q1 for Charles Leclerc’s Sauber going deep at Sainte Devote (turn one) compromised Magnussen’s last attempt at a quick lap.

In Q2, Grosjean earned the 15th fastest time with a lap of 1:12.728. Only the top-10 drivers from Q2 move on to Q3.

Both Grosjean and Magnussen ran exclusively on the Pirelli P Zero Pink hypersoft tire throughout qualifying.

Taking an emphatic pole for the Monaco Grand Prix was Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo. His fast lap of 1:10.810 set a new track qualifying record at Monaco and was .229 of a second better than runner-up Sebastian Vettel of Scuderia Ferrari. It was Ricciardo’s second career Formula One pole, and it came two years after he scored his first Formula One pole in the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix.

Before Grosjean, Magnussen and the rest of their Formula One counterparts participated in knockout qualifying, they had one final practice (FP3) to dial in their racecars for a quick lap around the track. The Haas F1 Team drivers ran a solitary installation lap on the Red supersoft tire before switching to the Pink hypersoft compound for timed laps.

Grosjean ran 21 laps and set the 18th fastest time with a 1:13.881 on his 14th tour. Magnussen tallied 20 laps and earned his best time on his 12th lap – a 1:14.192 that put him directly behind his teammate in 19th. Lack of grip was the theme echoed by both drivers throughout the 60-minute session.

After setting the pace in FP1 and FP2 on Thursday, the Red Bull duo of Ricciardo and Max Verstappen maintained their 1-2 position at the top of the speed chart in FP3. Ricciardo just barely outran his teammate, as his quick lap of 1:11.786 bested Verstappen by a scant .001 of a second. Despite having the second-quickest lap, Verstappen crashed later in practice, damaging his car enough to where he could not participate in qualifying. He will start last in the Monaco Grand Prix.

“Unfortunately, between FP2 and FP3, we didn’t manage to get much more performance in the car. We knew qualifying was going to be difficult. I was pretty pleased to go into Q2 because that wasn’t even in the planning, initially. I gave it all in Q1, and I knew I wouldn’t have much more in Q2. I did improve my lap time, which is great, but everyone made a bigger step. It’s been a difficult weekend. I think we can learn a lot from it. We just can’t get any grip, but the balance of the car itself is pretty alright. Obviously it’s Monaco, so nothing is finished until the checkered flag is down, thought it’s not ideal for us to be starting 18th and 19th on the grid.”

“It’s been a bit of a shock this weekend, especially coming from last weekend being so good, so competitive, to being this uncompetitive, and really struggling for so many different reasons. It’s not just tires not working or balance issues, it’s just lacking pace this weekend. We can’t seem to find it in any way. In a short space of time, we’ve tried a hell of a lot of things. It’s not been easy.”

“Obviously, a disappointing qualifying for us, because this year we’re used to doing better than this. We saw it coming on Thursday – we were not very competitive. Nevertheless, Monte Carlo is special. I think it doesn’t show what the car is capable of at a normal track. Tomorrow, we do the best that we can. Maybe something strange happens and we get ourselves in a good position. Regardless, we still believe our car can do better than this in the races that follow.”