Daniel Ricciardo WINS Monaco Grand Prix
Daniel Ricciardo has won the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix despite being down on power for most of the race. Sebastian Vettel was second, Lewis Hamilton third.
What went wrong for Ricciardo today was a Red Bull that suffered a power loss when he’d only run around third of the race, despite which he managed to fend of Vettel in second to take a much deserved win at the most prestigious event in the F1 calendar.
It was a glorious result from a talented driver, a driver who was due a win at Monaco after a bungled pit stop in 2016 deprived him of the win he should have had, and the control and skill he demonstrated keeping Vettel at bay in a car which was not what it should have been – down by over 200bhp and 2.5s a lap – ranks it amongst the most memorable drives in F1.
What helped Ricciardo was not only the difficult passing track, but that all the cars were driving more slowly than they would normally to save their tyres, and towards the end, after a virtual safety car, Ricciardo ended up finishing comfortably ahead of Vettel as his tyres went badly off.
Behind Vettel, Hamilton managed a third place to get probably as many points as he expected on a track which really doesn’t suit Mercedes, and Raikkonen and Bottas took fourth and fifth for Ferrari and Mercedes respectively.
Ocon managed to finish where he started, in sixth place, with Toro Rosso’s Gasly getting a well-deserved seventh (helped by Alonso’s retirement when his McLaren eat his gearbox in the closing stages), Hulkenberg took eight for Renault, Max Verstappen managed to grab a couple of extra points for Red Bull despite staring from the pit lane, and Carlos Sainz took the last points place.
But the day belonged to Daniel Ricciardo and Red Bull. And deservedly so.
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