MOODY LEWIS
Hamilton cursed again as Ricciardo blasts Red Bull to the fastest Monaco pole
LEWIS HAMILTON chucked and charged his Mercedes between the barriers in one last desperate bid for pole. But it was not quite enough on the afternoon Daniel Ricciardo set the fastest time Monaco’s streets have ever staged.
At the end of the on-track drama, the expression on Ricciardo’s face — always inclined to a Colgateadvert smile — was in direct contrast to Hamilton’s miserable countenance. The Brit, who was third quickest and a place behind his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, does not wear adversity lightly and his mood could not be hidden by the sunglasses he resolutely kept on for the cameras.
Hamilton’s disappointing afternoon started when low fuel pressure struck his car as he left the garage for the third qualifying period. He had to be wheeled back in and the problem was rectified.
Once he was out again, the triple world champion aborted his first flying lap and spent three more circuits trying to free up space for a traffic-free dart at pole. By this point Ricciardo had banged in his record 1min 13.622sec lap.
We observers then vicariously lived Hamilton’s gung-ho attempt to beat it via the on-board camera. He was on target before falling away agonisingly in the final sector.
Ricciardo took his first career pole and Red Bull’s first since the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix.
And so Mercedes’ dominance of the hybrid era that began in 2014 was rocked in the most important qualifying session of the year.
Overtaking is difficult on this Tarmac thread and starting position is, therefore, unusually important here. One intervening factor, however, could be the thunderstorms forecast for today after a spell of unbroken sunshine.
‘I’ll certainly be able to sleep tonight,’ said Ricciardo. ‘I’ll go to bed knowing that I achieved what I set out to do. The whole week I have felt anticipation and excitement, and now the race is hopefully the more controlled part.
‘I’m going to enjoy it while I can and 24 hours from now I hope to be sitting in the winner’s seat.’
A black-tie dinner at the Grimaldi Palace with Prince Albert awaits the victor. But Rosberg, who has received that invitation for the past three years, said he is eyeing the start as the moment to strike for the lead, given that he will begin on ultra-soft tyres as opposed to the Australian’s super-softs and theoretically have more immediate pace as a result. But it is a short dart into that first corner and the opportunity is fleeting indeed.
Regardless of saying that he will have his eyes turned forward and focused on winning, Rosberg can still call it a successful afternoon if he extends his 43-point lead over Hamilton. A collision between the two Mercedes men for a second successive race remains another obvious possibility and by no means the worst outcome for the German.
It is too long a season to rule Hamilton out of contention at this stage but there is a faint sense emerging that it might, finally, be Rosberg’s year for the title.
Before the conspiracy theorists deludedly claim that Mercedes are sabotaging Hamilton so their Teutonic favourite triumphs, it is worth noting that Rosberg suffered the same low fuel pressure as his team-mate yesterday — just that it occurred in the garage rather than publicly on the pit straight.
Hamilton’s mood had not greatly improved when he spoke to reporters 90 minutes after the session. His answers were short and he chomped through strawberries and yoghurt. His team principal Toto Wolff was unconcerned. ‘Lewis wears his heart on his sleeve and when he’s had a bad day you can see that and it’s fair enough,’ said Wolff. ‘It’s his character. We want him to be authentic.’
Red Bull’s day was not quite perfect owing to the crash that ended the participation of Max Verstappen, the super-kid who came to Monte Carlo with hosannas ringing in his ears after winning the Spanish Grand Prix a fortnight ago.
Aged 18, there was the potential here for him to come a cropper through inexperience. He duly did, clipping the front right wheel of his Red Bull on the inside barrier exiting the swimming pool chicane. The session was stopped while his car was cleared.
‘Maybe I underestimated the grip I had, turned a bit too early,’ said Verstappen.
The Dutchman will start on the back row of the grid. As for Ricciardo he was asked if his pole position was due to an engine upgrade, the chassis, or his Australian cojones. The last of those three, he opined, smiling widely. Hamilton was expressionless.