Monaco Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton Says Track Is ‘Bumpiest Ever’

Ricciardo lost control of his car during the 150mph left-right turn at the start of the Swimming Pool section, clipped the wall with his left rear tyre, and crashed into the barrier at the start of the second part.

Because of issues with his Mercedes car in Friday practice, Lewis Hamilton said Monaco this year is the “bumpiest” track he has ever driven.

After a difficult day, Hamilton was only 12th fastest, complaining that he couldn’t get a lap together. George Russell, another teammate, finished sixth.

“There are, like, 100 bumps on just one straight. I don’t know whether the others are experiencing the same as us. But it’s the bumpiest roller-coaster ride,” Hamilton said.

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Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc set the pace in both sessions, leading teammate Carlos Sainz by the end of the day, both drivers more than 0.3 seconds faster than title rivals Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.

Russell was 0.7secs off the pace, and Hamilton was 0.9secs further back. Though Hamilton complained about “bouncing,” but said it was not the same as the high-frequency aerodynamic problem that plagued Mercedes until their upgrade last weekend in Spain.

“It’s the bumpiest the track’s ever been. It’s probably the bumpiest track I’ve ever driven,” the seven-time champion said.

“That makes it difficult but in general our car bounces a lot. It’s different bouncing to what we’ve experienced in the past because it’s in the low speed [corners] also, but it’s not aero. The bumps are making it worse.

“Putting a lap together is, wow, whole new ground. I don’t remember experiencing that before.

“The grip doesn’t feel terrible but it’s just eyeballs coming out of the sockets. As anticipated, I didn’t think we would be as quick as the Ferraris and Red Bulls. Our battle is to try and stay ahead of the McLarens.”

Russell added, “The car is constantly smashing against the floor. We have experienced a lot of that this year but this is a very different philosophy and reasoning for the bouncing.

“There are sections where both tyres are off the ground – in Turn Five, the front right in the air, and it’s so stiff the front left is popping up as well. You’re almost doing a wheelie. We’re doing everything we can to make it easier for us.

“It was a relatively good day but we are not where we want to be. We want to be best of the rest. That is a fair result this weekend behind Ferrari and Red Bull but we want to make sure we don’t have cheeky little Lando popping it in there too.”

Ferrari’s pace, with both cars at the front and more than 0.3secs back to the Red Bulls, underpins their status as pre-race favourites, on a weekend where Leclerc must beat Verstappen, who has turned a 46-point deficit into a six-point lead in three races.

When simulating race performance later in the session, the Ferraris were fastest on both short runs and over a series of laps.

On these race-simulation runs, Leclerc was 0.2secs faster than Sainz, who was 0.1secs faster than Verstappen, all on the soft tyre. Leclerc was also the fastest in the first session, beating Perez by 0.039 seconds.

Leclerc said, “For now we are competitive, so I’m happy. The car looks strong. Also in the race pace we look good. The initial feeling is good so hopefully we can do the step we want for tomorrow and have a great weekend after that.

“But I really think we need to do another step for tomorrow because everyone has quite a bit of a margin on Friday so it is a bit the unknown.”

Verstappen said: “We have been trying a few things around here to see how the car was behaving. I was a little bit happier in P1 than P2. Of course if you have a little bit of a better balance you can attack a bit more and then the lap time comes out a bit better.

“But clearly compared to Ferrari we have to find a little bit more and now it is all about trying to fine-tune my balance as well.”

Monaco resident Lewis Hamilton arrived on his usual motorbike.

Daniel Ricciardo’s difficult season at McLaren continued with a heavy crash at the Swimming Pool, while teammate Lando Norris finished fifth.

Ricciardo lost control of his car during the 150mph left-right turn at the start of the Swimming Pool section, clipped the wall with his left rear tyre, and crashed into the barrier at the start of the second part.

Sebastian Vettel had just escaped having the same accident, but he was able to collect his Aston Martin without it hitting the wall.

Vettel said, “There was a mistake in the first place. I shouldn’t be sideways at that point but I guess I was also a bit lucky. It was a good save but definitely my heart rate was going up.”

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It was the exact blow Ricciardo needed as he faces the intense focus that comes with being in a high-profile position but being outperformed by his teammate.

He stated: “I think we just went a little too far with the setup. I did everything I could to save it. We missed the entire session, but we’ll be ready to go the next day. We can use the morning, and Lando had a pretty good P2, so we can recover.”

Pierre Gasly of Alpha Tauri was seventh fastest, ahead of Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, Vettel, and Yuki Tsunoda of Alpha Tauri.

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