» Red Bull stays on top in Monaco

Red Bull Racing looks to be in ominous form after Daniel Ricciardo completed a clean sweep of both Thursday practice sessions for the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix.

After setting the pace in the day’s opening practice session, the Australian was once again in fine touch around the 3.337-kilometre street circuit, breaking its unofficial lap record.

He and teammate Max Verstappen were the pacesetters throughout the session, with the Dutch youngster – who escaped sanction from the FIA Stewards for reversing back onto the circuit after trip off-track in FP1 – moving to the top of the timesheets in the opening twenty minutes with a 1:12.468 on the Hypersoft Pirelli tyres.

He worked down towards a 1:12.071 effort on the same tyre set and was on course to go even quicker then the session was red-flagged at the 25-minute mark.

The culprit was a loose drain cover on the short straight between Casino Square and Mirabeau, which was quickly welded back in place under the watchful eye of FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting.

Fifteen minutes after its stoppage, the pit lane was opened once more. Despite battles with traffic, Verstappen further improved to a 1:12.035 on a fresh set of tyres, but his run was brought to a premature end when he pitted to check for front wing damage after clipping the rear of Romain Grosjean’s Haas at the hairpin.

Ricciardo had his own battles with traffic and performed his qualifying-style run much later than most. He broke through the 1m12s barrier, clocking a 1:11.841 with a little over 20 minutes remaining to move to the top of the timing screens.

With another Red Bull Racing 1-2 result, Sebastian Vettel finished the day third-quickest but almost four-tenths of a second off Ricciardo’s ultimate pace. The German and Ferrari teammate Kimi Räikkönen sandwiched Lewis Hamilton in fourth place, with all three covered by barely 0.1 seconds.

Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas was next up in sixth-fastest, just 0.099 seconds slower than Räikkönen.

Renault’s Nico Hülkenberg claimed ‘best of the rest’ honours in seventh place, although he was over a second off Ricciardo’s pace with an identical power unit.

McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne was an impressive eighth-fastest in the Renault-powered McLaren, one spot ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard’s compatriot Carlos Sainz Jr. was tenth-fastest.

Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley shrugged off speculation that his seat was in danger by going eleventh-quickest in the Honda-powered STR13, just 0.022 seconds off Sainz Jr.’s pace. The New Zealander survived a scrape against the Sainte-Dévote barriers exiting the corner.

Teammate Pierre Gasly was fourteenth-fastest, with the pair sandwiching the Force India duo of Sergio Pérez and Esteban Ocon.

Williams rookie Sergey Sirotkin finished 15th-fastest, chased by Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and Charles Leclerc (Sauber).

As is tradition in Monte Carlo, the Formula 1 field will have a ‘rest day’ on Friday before getting back on the Circuit de Monaco on Saturday morning for Free Practice 3 and Qualifying.

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2018 – FREE PRACTICE SESSION 2 TIMES
	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Daniel Ricciardo	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB14	1:11.841		33
2.	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB14	1:12.035	+ 0.194	41
3.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF71H	1:12.413	+ 0.572	42
4.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1W09	1:12.536	+ 0.695	34
5.	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari SF71H	1:12.543	+ 0.702	36
6.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1W09	1:12.642	+ 0.801	38
7.	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault Sport F1 Team RS18	1:13.047	+ 1.206	30
8.	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren F1 Team Renault MCL33	1:13.077	+ 1.236	40
9.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren F1 Team Renault MCL33	1:13.115	+ 1.274	42
10.	Carlos Sainz Jr	Renault Sport F1 Team RS18	1:13.200	+ 1.359	34
11.	Brendon Hartley	Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda STR13	1:13.222	+ 1.381	47
12.	Sergio Pérez	Force India F1 Team Mercedes VJM11	1:13.370	+ 1.529	39
13.	Esteban Ocon	Force India F1 Team Mercedes VJM11	1:13.382	+ 1.541	47
14.	Pierre Gasly	Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda STR13	1:13.410	+ 1.569	32
15.	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW41	1:13.547	+ 1.706	44
16.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team Ferrari VF-18	1:13.572	+ 1.731	41
17.	Charles Leclerc	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C37	1:13.575	+ 1.734	45
18.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team Ferrari VF-18	1:13.763	+ 1.922	37
19.	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW41	1:14.011	+ 2.170	34
20.	Marcus Ericsson	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C37	1:14.173	+ 2.332	46