Red Bull Racing star Daniel Ricciardo claimed a dominant victory in the Monaco Grand Prix - despite suffering from a powertrain problem for the bulk of the race.
The Australian dominated the weekend, setting the fastest time in every practice session before qualifying on pole. He then controlled the early stages of the race ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, until suddenly suffering from a loss of power due to a failure of his energy recovery system of his car’s Tag Heuer-badged Renault engines.
Ricciardo was forced to drive without using his top two gears for the bulk of the event - with Red Bull estimating he lost around 25% of his engine’s power - but he was able to fend off Vettel on the tight street circuit, and even pulled clear in the closing stages when Vettel struggled with his tyres.
“The problems threw a lot of doubt in my mind for a few laps,” said Ricciardo after his second win of 2018. “Every lap I goy by with no extra problems was a little victory. I was happy to see the chequered flag.”
Here’s what else we learned from the Monaco Grand Prix.
Red Bull’s mixed fortunes
Ricciardo’s pole position was just the second of his F1 career - the first came back at Monaco in 2016, when he dominated the race until a bungled pit stop by his team. It also meant that Red Bull’s bookended the grid, with Max Verstappen starting last.
The Dutchman missed qualifying after crashing in final practice on Saturday morning, adding to the string of incidents he’s had this year. That prompted his team boss, Christian Horner, to say that Verstappen needs to change his approach. He added: “He needs to learn from it, and stop making these errors. He knows that more than anybody.”
