The opening Thursday practice session for the 2018 Monaco GP would see Williams Martini driver Sergey Sirotkin finish in an impressive 10th. His team-mate Lance Stroll would have a far more difficult session finishing in 18th. Both drivers would have issues during the session with Sergey making contact with the barrier damaging his right rear wheel and suspension. He was forced to pit for a lengthy stop but upon his return would set a time seeing him 6th dropping to 10th. Lance would have a session that would see him struggle with the setup of his car as well as complaining about moving around in his seat.
Williams
Martini Monaco GP Thursday 1st Practice
Team Summary:
With the start of the opening Friday practice session there would be a
mixture of tyres been used covering the supersoft, ultrasoft and hypersoft.
Bottas and Hamilton would be quickest with Bottas setting a 1m:17.299.
Bottas would improve with a 1m:15.697 to remain quickest but Sergey would
improve with a 1m:15.780. to be quickest. But Hamilton would move ahead with
a 1m:15.229 but it was changing quickly with Bottas again fastest with a
1m:14.882. Both Mercedes were on the ultrasoft tyre.
After the initial runs the Williams drivers were third and fourth running on
the hypersoft tyre. Ricciardo would go third on the hypersoft tyre with a
1m:15.289. Bottas would improve with a 1m:14.347. Ricciardo would move to
the top of the times with a 1m:14.103. The Williams drivers were now fourth
and fifth as they continued their runs. Thirteen drivers had set times
but this would increase with Verstappen now second followed by Bottas and
Hamilton. Raikkonen was now fifth but his team-mate would move up to third
followed now by Bottas and Hartley. Ricciardo was able to improve with a
1m:13.139 again quickest. With both Williams drivers back in their pits with
an hour remaining they weer 16th and 17th.
Again Verstappen would go quickest with a 1m:12.941. He would improve with a
1m:12.723. The track would empty as drivers returned to their pits to hand
back their tyres to Pirelli. First back out were the Mercedes drivers.
Hamilton would go quickest with a 1m:13.038. The order was now Hamilton,
Verstappen, Ricciardo, Vettel, Bottas, Sergey in sixth. But Ricciardo would
move up to fifth seeing Sergey now 7th. Vettel would continue to improve
moving up to third but Ricciardo would take this spot back. With just over
thirty minutes remaining the Williams drivers were in 9th and 16th.
Verstappen was fastest with a 1m:12.280. As the final thirty minutes of the
session wound down it would be Ricciardo who would go quickest with a
1m:12.126. He would be followed by Verstappen, Hamilton, Vettel, Raikkonen,
Sainz, Bottas, Perez, Grosjean and Sergey. So we had the Williams drivers in
10th and 18th with Sergey in a very encouraging top ten finish. But Lance
was 0.820 of his team-mates time.
Lance Stroll:
Lance would be first out for Williams running on the hypersoft tyre. lance
would set a 1m:19.186 to go ahead of his team-mate. He would follow this
with a 1m:17.349. Lance would improve with a 1m:15.960 currently in tenth,
dropping to 13th. Lance would say that his front tyres are graining seeing
him pit after a 15 lap run. He would pit taking on a new set of hypersoft
tyres returning to the track. He would have a moment that would see him pit
again currently 17th. Lance would also come back out and would improve to be
tenth with a 1m:14.782. He would come on his radio saying that he could not
go any quicker as he was not happy with the balance of his car. He was
currently 14th. lance would continue his run on the hypersoft tyre. Lance
would also complain that he was moving a lot in his seat and he would pit
currently 16th. With the end of the session Lance would complete 23 laps on
his hypersoft tyres having dropped to 18th. Lance had said: "The fronts just
go away and away and away. I get to the point where I can't turn the
corner."
Sergey
Sirotkin:
Sergey would also use the hypersoft tyre for his installation runs. Sergey
would set the first lap time with a 1m:19.249. Sergey would improve with a
1m:16.717 to be quickest. He would drop in second. But he would improve with
a 1m:15.697 followed by a 1m:15.387. But he would have to pit after making
contact with the barrier with his right rear tyre seeing him limp back to
his pit. He would be wheeled back into his garage to assess the damage. He
had surprisingly make contact with the barrier as he was running on the main
straight. Even though he had to pit Sergey was currently sixth dropping to
eighth. This would become 16th as his mechanics worked on his damaged car.
Sergey was able to get out again and would improve back to be sixth with a
1m:13.962. He would drop to seventh then eighth. Sergey would continue his
run on the hypersoft tyre. He would pit after a thirteen lap run, currently
ninth. With the end of the session Sergey would finish in an very
encouraging 10th.
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