The rain will not come for Ricciardo, with sunny skies forecast. On that occasion, Frenchman Olivier Panis survived a demolition derby to win in his Lugier Mugen Honda.
F1 2017 MONACO QUALIFYING DRIVER
Not since 1996's rain-soaked Monaco Grand Prix has a driver won from anywhere but the front two rows. Starting from fifth in Monaco might as well mean being at the back in terms of Riccardo's hopes of winning the race and joining Jack Brabham and Mark Webber as Australian victors. That mistake meant Ricciardo could do little but watch as Valtteri Bottas in his Mercedes, Sebastian Vettel in his Ferrari and Verstappen all bettered his time, pushing him to fifth on the grid. It has been a difficult season so far for the Aussie driver. "And then we caught Jenson as well but there was 20 seconds behind me, so why we put me out in traffic when we knew we needed a hard out lap, was a pretty obvious mistake." "But we came out in traffic so I couldn't push on the last run, on the out lap, and it seemed like we had 20 seconds to Perez behind me and they put me out just behind Max and he was on a build lap, so he wasn't even going that quick.
"The first attempt … the lap was pretty scrappy and the tyres weren't quite there and we made a few adjustments and thought, 'give it a go'. "We needed a clear out lap to push and warm the tyres up," Riccardo said of his second stint on track in Q3. The mistake left a disappointed Ricciardo pondering "why" yet again. There was a large gap behind Ricciardo, 20 seconds in fact, to Sergio Perez in his Force India. His team sent him out for his final qualifying run in traffic on Saturday, directly behind team-mate Max Verstappen and returning McLaren driver Jenson Button. One year removed from his tyres not being ready for a pit stop - when he was leading the 2016 race and seemingly headed for victory - a timing mistake cost the Australian in qualifying on the street circuit. It would be a big result for the championship, but victory would also mean a huge amount to Leclerc on an emotional level - and put an end to any narrative around his Monaco ‘curse’.For the second successive year, Daniel Ricciardo's dreams of winning the Monaco Grand Prix have likely been shattered by an error on the part of his Red Bull Racing team. So hopefully, we have a clean race tomorrow, and we finally have a good result at home.” “We’ve had a smooth weekend until now, and we're starting in the best place possible for tomorrow's race. “I'm not superstitious at all,” Leclerc said.
But even when talking after qualifying, Leclerc made clear he is giving no thought to any kind of home race hoodoo. Leclerc’s rotten Monaco record has been a natural talking point throughout this weekend, particularly after his charge to pole position on Saturday. The team ultimately found an issue with the left driveshaft that prevented Leclerc from taking the start at all. When Ferrari fired the car up for the reconnaissance laps to the grid, an issue emerged that meant Leclerc could not get out before the pit lane closed. Leclerc would start his home race from pole for the first time - or so it seemed. It prevented Max Verstappen from improving, meaning pole belonged to Leclerc, but serious concerns were raised about the condition of his car.Ī gearbox change was weighed up by Ferrari, but the team deemed there was “no serious damage” to the internals that would warrant any action that may result in a grid penalty. Leclerc took provisional pole with his first run in Q3, but as he pushed hard to improve on his final lap, he crashed hard at the exit of Swimming Pool, resulting in a red flag. It only really started to believe it was in contention come qualifying when it remained competitive, setting up a tense fight for pole. It meant that when Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz starred through practice, Ferrari was quick to downplay its chances.
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