MONACO

RACE ZONE

RICCIARDO FURY AT RED BULL

WITH his first top-three finish of 2016, Daniel Ricciardo should have been delighted to be standing on the prestigious Monaco podium. But for the second race running Red Bull’s pit-stops had snatched victory away from the Australian, who cut a miserable figure next to Hamilton. Ricciardo said afterwards he had been ‘screwed twice’ by his team. Red Bull can’t keep making clumsy errors if they want to retain a star like the Aussie and keep him happy.

PALMER’S HORROR START

JOLYON PALMER desperately needed a performance in Monaco to rescue a season in which his Renault future looks increasingly uncertain. But in the first full racing circuit after the safety car, the British driver span on a zebra crossing and crashed into a barrier and out of the race (left). Frenchman Esteban Ocon is the reserve driver at Renault, and tested behind the wheel during practice in Spain this year.

FERRARI FAIL

FERRARI went into the season believing they could challenge Mercedes for the championship. Instead they have not laid a glove on the Silver Arrows and if anything have fallen behind Red Bull in the pecking order, with even Force India pipping them to podiums now. These are tough times at Maranello.

HULK MISSES OUT

AS with Ricciardo and Red Bull, Force India’s podium with Sergio Perez should have represented a job well done. But despite the top-three finish, deputy team boss Bob Fernley was disappointed not to have achieved an even better result with Nico Hulkenberg, who was brought in too early for a pit stop.

ROSBERG EXPOSED

NICO ROSBERG may be the championship leader but he looked far from champion material as he let Hamilton past before struggling to find a way to overtake the inferior McLaren of Fernando Alonso. The German only narrowly avoided the embarrassment of being lapped by his team-mate and was also passed by Hulkenberg.

McLAREN IMPROVE

ALONSO’S (left) fifth place for McLaren represented the team’s joint-best finish since switching to Honda power in 2015. With Jenson Button also claiming ninth for a double-points placing, it represents steady improvement for the Woking outfit. But a return to the podium — let alone a win — still seems a distant dream.