Monaco GP: Ricciardo dominates frantic second practice

Using the upgraded version of the TAG-badged power unit – unlike his Spanish GP-winning teammate Max Verstappen – Ricciardo lapped in 1m14.607s.

That pace was well over half a second clear of the quickest of the Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton outpacing Nico Rosberg by a further 0.3s.

Verstappen was fourth fastest, almost a second off Ricciardo’s pace, with Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz making it a Red Bull-filled top six in their Toro Rossos.

Ferrari suffered a dismal session, with Kimi Raikkonen seventh and Sebastian Vettel suffering no less than three moments – including a spin and a barrier clout – to end the session ninth.

Story of the session

Rosberg straightlined the Nouvelle Chicane on his first flying lap, but recovered to set the early pace on 1m16.694s on supersoft tyres on his next tour.

Sainz then briefly led the way with 1m16.345s, as Hamilton also had a wild moment under braking at the chicane on his first attempt. But the world champion jumped to the top of the times in 1m15.489s on his second go, also on supersofts.

Ricciardo grabbed the top spot with a lap of 1m15.315s on the ultrasoft tyre after 15 minutes. He then improved on that on his second lap on the same tyres, producing a 1m15.015s.

Verstappen and Kvyat were third and fourth after 30 minutes, with Rosberg languishing down in sixth.

The Mercedes duo bolted on ultrasofts for their second runs, with Rosberg – who slipped down to ninth by now – rocketing back up to third on 1m15.537s. Hamilton went P2 on 1m15.489s, although was forced to abort on lap due to straightlining the chicane.

Hamilton improved to 1m15.213s, but this was his third run on the ultrasoft tyre, so 0.2s was as close as he could get to Ricciardo.

Rosberg also improved marginally on his third flyer, to 1m15.506s.

Ricciardo then raised the bar substantially with 1m14.607s, to end the session 0.606s clear of the Mercs.

Verstappen was 0.244s ahead of the closely-matched Kvyat and Sainz. Raikkonen was less than a tenth clear of Sergio Perez’s Force India, which headed Vettel, McLaren’s Jenson Button and the second Force India of Nico Hulkenberg.

Fernando Alonso was 12^th fastest, ahead of Esteban Gutierrez’s Haas, Valtteri Bottas (Williams) and the second Haas of Romain Grosjean.

Felipe Massa (Williams) and Jolyon Palmer (Renault), who both suffered FP1 shunts, went into FP2 on the back foot. Massa was able to play a full part in this session, which he ended 16^th, while Palmer’s car required much more work and only appeared for the final 30 minutes.

Incidents aplenty again

The sequence of accidents in FP1 continued in the afternoon session, with the Virtual Safety Car required just seven minutes into the session due to debris on the approach to the Nouvelle Chicane after Grosjean swiped the barrier both front and rear – but amazingly managed to continue back to the pits.

“The car completely went, I don’t know – I must have a puncture,” he reported.

A second VSC was required after 22 minutes, as Rio Haryanto crashed his Manor heavily on the exit of the tunnel, hitting the barrier on the inside of the chicane after losing control of the rear of his car under braking.

“I’m OK,” he confirmed on the radio. He was only 0.045s slower than Raikkonen at the time, with his car suffering front-end and right-side suspension damage.

Speaking of Ferraris, Vettel spun at Mirabeau just after the halfway point of the session, and was down in 14^th at the time: “I spun and damaged the rear wing – get a spare ready,” he reported.

Vettel then clipped the wall at Ste Devote in the final 20 minutes.

The third VSC occurred with 26 minutes remaining, as Kevin Magnussen stuffed his Renault head-on into the wall at the final corner, Anthony Noghes.

More moments at Ste Devote

Ste Devote was another busy place for cars visiting the run-off zone, Sauber's Felipe Nasr setting the ball rolling right from the start of the session.

Rosberg had a huge lock-up there at the end of his first run, while Verstappen snagged a left-front brake and took to the escape route half an hour into the session.

Raikkonen ruined his first ultrasoft run by locking up and being forced into a U-turn, while Button had a moment before Vettel understeered through the apex and whacked the wall with his left-rear near the end of the session.

There was no repeat of the FP1 drain-cover issues.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:14.607		40
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:15.213	+0.606	36
3	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:15.506	+0.899	48
4	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	1:15.571	+0.964	42
5	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:15.815	+1.208	53
6	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	1:15.981	+1.374	54
7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:16.040	+1.433	38
8	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:16.120	+1.513	48
9	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:16.269	+1.662	40
10	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:16.325	+1.718	46
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:16.487	+1.880	49
12	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:16.723	+2.116	43
13	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas F1 Team	1:16.782	+2.175	40
14	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:16.849	+2.242	47
15	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	1:16.874	+2.267	23
16	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:17.286	+2.679	42
17	Kevin Magnussen	Renault F1 Team	1:17.530	+2.923	29
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:17.562	+2.955	39
19	Jolyon Palmer	Renault F1 Team	1:17.761	+3.154	24
20	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:17.999	+3.392	49
21	Rio Haryanto	Manor Racing	1:18.647	+4.040	10
22	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor Racing	1:18.814	+4.207	46