Ricciardo fastest as Verstappen crashes hard in Monaco FP3

Daniel Ricciardo completed a hat-trick of fastest times in practice for the Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday morning with a new Formula 1 track record as Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen crashed hard, putting his qualifying participation in doubt. 

After trailing close behind Ricciardo through both practice sessions on Thursday, Verstappen looked set to take his turn at the front after recording a best lap time of 1m11.787s to lead the way heading into the closing stages of the second.

However, Verstappen ended his session in the wall after touching the inside barrier at the exit of the Swimming Pool chicane, leaving him as a passenger as his car slammed into the wall on the outside.

The shunt brought out a red flag, and leaves Red Bull facing a big repair job at the front-end of the RB14 to get the car repaired in time for qualifying, starting in two hours’ time.

The session resumed with four minutes remaining, giving Ricciardo enough time to head out for one final quick run on the Hypersoft tyre, with his lap coming in 0.001 seconds faster than Verstappen’s to give the Australian P1 overall.

The one-two meant Red Bull will enter qualifying with a clean sweep of one-two finishes through practice as neither Ferrari nor Mercedes could disrupt the RB14 car’s dominance at the head of the field.

Ferrari looked to be within striking distance as Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen finished third and fourth respectively, both finishing within four-tenhts of a second of Verstappen’s headline time. Lewis Hamilton took fifth for Mercedes ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas as they ended FP3 half a second off the pace.

Toro Rosso’s impressive form in Monaco continued as Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly finished seventh and eighth respectively, acting as a boost ahead of qualifying. Hartley was running with an updated floor and rear brake-drums on his car in the session, having seen Gasly make use of them earlier in the weekend.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was able to finish ninth for Renault, with Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin rounding out the top 10 after an impressive showing from the British team following its difficult start to the 2018 season.

Stoffel Vandoorne finished as the lead McLaren in P11 ahead of Force India drivers Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez, with Nico Hulkenberg taking 14th. Fernando Alonso wound up 15th for McLaren ahead of Lance Stroll and home favourite Charles Leclerc.

Haas' struggles in Monaco continued as Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen wound up 18th and 19th as Marcus Ericsson propped up the timesheets for Sauber in P20.

Qualifying begins at 1pm BST in Monaco on Saturday.