Daniel Ricciardo takes first career Pole Position in MonacoBy: S. Harding, Xiro Xone News May 28, 2016 Updated: 11:15 AM
Daniel Ricciardo is interviewed by journalists on the deck of the Red Bull Racing Energy Station at Monte Carlo on May 28, 2016 in Monaco, Monaco. Photo: Red Bull Racing | Getty Images
Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo took the first pole position of his career with on the streets of Monte Carlo for Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix.
Ricciardo took pole by 0.169s from Mercedes' Nico Rosberg who had a 0.209s in the final sector where Red Bull have been strong all weekend. Lewis Hamilton who’s Q3 session was hindered by a fuel pressure issue saw his engine cut out just as he prepared to go out on track. “I’m happy! I put it together when I needed to. Qualifying just built up and built up and I found the rhythm, and then that first run in Q3 was the one I needed to do,” said Ricciardo. His car was pushed back to the pits where they were able to quickly repair the problem and managed to get him back out with five minutes left in the session. Hamilton aborted his first quick lap and then completed a series of slow laps ahead of one final attempt where he finished three tenths of a second shy of Ricciardo. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who had a strong showing in Q2 was just a second behind Ricciardo's pole position lap in Q3. “This morning we had a very good start, I knew that there will be a lot more to come and I wasn’t worried at all, but as the qualifying progressed it was just getting more difficult for us to extract the grip,” said Vettel. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg finished fifth fastest lap ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who faces a five place grid penalty and will drop to 11th on Sunday's grid. Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso), Sergio Perez (Force India), Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso), Fernando Alonso (McLaren-Honda) and Valtteri Bottas (Williams) will all move up one place as a result. Esteban Gutierrez who set an impressive lap for Haas F1 secured his best qualifying result of the season in 12th. Jenson Button was 0.245s off his teammate Alonso after losing 0.127s in the first sector and will start 13th ahead of the of Felipe Massa for Williams and Romain Grosjean for Haas F1. “It’s been a positive day,” said Gutierrez. “At the start it was difficult to get the tires right, and run by run I was trying to modify and adapt to the circumstances. Finally, we got everything together.” Kevin Magnussen qualified 16th escaped punishment by the stewards for exiting the pitlane when the light was red during qualifying after the session was suspended due to Max Verstappen breaking his suspension against the wall. “It’s not great to be sixteenth; it’s about where we’ve been for most of the year whereas we were hoping for something better here. In Monaco there is a high probability of crashes and maybe it’s going to rain too, so you never know what could happen tomorrow,” said Magnussen. The stewards deemed that Magnussen didn't have enough time to react and stop when the light changed, therefore they chose to take no further action. Verstappen clipped the barrier on the entry to the second part of the Swimming Pool complex, breaking his right front steering arm and sending his car hard into the barriers on the exit. Manor’s Rio Haryanto out-qualifying team-mate Pascal Wehrlein by just under 0.2s while, Marcus Erisson and Jolyon Palmer will start 17th and 18th on the grid. |
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