Monaco, FP3: Hamilton heads Ricciardo

Hamilton tops final Monte-Carlo practice

By Franck Drui

24 May 2014 - 12:05
Monaco, FP3: Hamilton heads Ricciardo

Lewis Hamilton finished the final practice session ahead of Monaco’s crucial qualifying session at the top of the timesheet, but only by five hundredths of a second.

With Mercedes’ performance advantage somewhat blunted by the twisting streets of the Principality, Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo split the Mercedes pair of Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, who ended the session a tenth behind his team-mate.

Rosberg had run quickest in the earlier part of the session, when the teams ran with Pirelli’s Soft tyre, but when the switch was made to the option Supersoft in the closing stages of the session, the championship leader edged ahead of the German once more.

Although defending champion Sebastian Vettel logged the quickest second sector time on the Supersoft, the Red Bull Racing couldn’t match the pace at the start and end of his laps on the option tyre and finished fourth, four tenths of a second behind Hamilton. He, along with others, was often frustrated by traffic during the session and was seen waving his fist angrily at Williams’ Felipe Massa as the driver set about their qualifying simulations on the packed track.

Behind Vettel the Fernando Alonos and Kimi Raikkonen were fifth and sixth quickest respectively and the Ferrari pairing were separated by just two hundredths of a second.

They were backed up by the Force India machines of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg, who finished just five hundredths of a second apart, and the Toro Rossos of Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniil Kvyat, with the Frenchman beating out the Russian by just under a tenth of a second.

Pos.DriverTeamTimeLaps
01 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG 1:16.758 27
02 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Renault 1:16.808 26
03 Nico Rosberg Mercedes AMG 1:16.874 24
04 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Renault 1:17.184 23
05 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:17.428 22
06 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:17.448 24
07 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 1:17.725 23
08 Nico Hulkenberg Force India Mercedes 1:18.074 21
09 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso Renault 1:18.136 19
10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso Renault 1:18.166 26
11 Kevin Magnussen McLaren Mercedes 1:18.249 28
12 Jenson Button McLaren Mercedes 1:18.262 21
13 Valtteri Bottas Williams Mercedes 1:18.430 31
14 Felipe Massa Williams Mercedes 1:18.542 30
15 Adrian Sutil Sauber Ferrari 1:18.598 24
16 Romain Grosjean Lotus Renault 1:18.776 26
17 Jules Bianchi Marussia Ferrari 1:18.872 23
18 Pastor Maldonado Lotus Renault 1:19.118 28
19 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber Ferrari 1:19.149 28
20 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham Renault 1:20.271 32
21 Max Chilton Marussia Ferrari 1:20.394 25
22 Marcus Ericsson Caterham Renault 1:20.589 30

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