Why unloved Lotus 76 may be Colin Chapman's most significant car
A wide variety of Lotus cars are often proffered as the ultimate F1 game-changer – but was the Lotus 76 an unusual candidate which trumps them all?
Red Bull takes 1-2 in FP1 as hypersofts make their F1 debut
Daniel Ricciardo was fastest in the first practice session of the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix ahead of his team-mate Max Verstappen.
Ricciardo set the fastest time of 1min 12.126sec, beating team-mate Verstappen as the two traded places at the top of the leaderboard throughout the session.
The Dutchman was investigated for incorrectly rejoining the track after locking up into Turn 1, the stewards unhappy at his use of reverse gear.
Lewis Hamilton was third fastest ahead of the Ferrari pair led by Sebastian Vettel. Mercedes Valtteri Bottas finished seventh – behind Renault’s Carlos Sainz – as he focussed on long runs.
Sergio Pérez finished eighth ahead of Romain Grosjean, who made a late charge to take ninth place at the expense of Sergey Sirotkin. Williams team-mate Lance Stroll took 17th.
Esteban Ocon took 11th, ahead of Brendon Hartley who pipped Nico Hülkenberg to 12th late in the session.
Pierre Gasly finished ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne, whose team-mate Fernando Alonso (17th) was resigned to the pits for most of the session as his return to Monaco was soured by what McLaren cited as a ‘sensor issue’. Alonso returned to the track with 10 minutes remaining.
Kevin Magnussen also had a mechanical issue and finished last, behind Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson.
With the hypersofts in use for the first time this season, Kimi Räikkönen’s 2017 pole lap of 1min 12.178sec has already been beaten.
1 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1min 12.126sec | |
2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1min 12.280sec | +0.154sec |
3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1min 12.480sec | +0.354sec |
4 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1min 13.041sec | +0.915sec |
5 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1min 13.066sec | +0.940sec |
6 | Carlos Sainz | Renault | 1min 13.456sec | +1.330sec |
7 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1min 13.502sec | +1.376sec |
8 | Sergio Pérez | Force India | 1min 13.717sec | +1.591sec |
9 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1min 13.943sec | +1.817sec |
10 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | 1min 13.962sec | +1.836sec |
11 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 1min 14.000sec | +1.874sec |
12 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 1min 14.034sec | +1.908sec |
13 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault | 1min 14.134sec | +2.008sec |
14 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 1min 14.240sec | +2.114sec |
15 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 1min 14.291sec | +2.165sec |
16 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber | 1min 14.521sec | +2.395sec |
17 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1min 14.637sec | +2.511sec |
18 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 1min 14.782sec | +2.656sec |
19 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1min 15.206sec | +3.080sec |
20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1min 18.801sec | +6.675sec |
A wide variety of Lotus cars are often proffered as the ultimate F1 game-changer – but was the Lotus 76 an unusual candidate which trumps them all?
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