Monaco Grand Prix 2017 Qualifying: FP Results After Sebastian Vettel Sets Pace

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel shone in second practice at the Formula One 2017 Monaco Grand Prix on Thursday.

After posting an excellent lap time of one minute, 12.720 seconds to post the quickest time, the German was also consistently quick on the long runs late in the session too. Vettel’s nearest challenger was Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo—0.487 seconds down—and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas struggled for pace in the second session, as they were only eighth and 10th respectively. Earlier on, the former had topped first practice.

Jenson Button, filling in for Indy500-bound Fernando Alonso in the McLaren, was 14th in FP1 and 12th in FP2 in his one-off return from retirement.

The drivers will be back for final practice and qualifying on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s crucial race. Here's a recap of how things have played out in the early stages in the principality.

FP2 Recap

Here are the standings from the second practice session of the day courtesy of the Formula One Twitter feed:

After a pretty incident-free morning, some drivers ran into problems at the beginning of FP2. Jolyon Palmer’s testing season continued in the Renault, as he was told to pull up his vehicle with smoke billowing out the back of it.

Esteban Ocon got out of shape heading into the hairpin too, clattering his Force India off the wall and eventually making his way back to the pits.

The biggest smash of the session belonged to Williams’ Lance Stroll, though, as he lost control of his car heading uphill at Casino Square. As we can see courtesy of Sky Sports F1, the position of his vehicle meant the red flags quickly came out:

In the battle to finish top of the standings it was Red Bull who set the quickest pace to being with, as Ricciardo moved to the summit. However, Vettel was able to pump in a searing 1:12.720, almost half-a-second ahead of the Red Bull man.

Meanwhile, Mercedes were struggling for pace with Hamilton unhappy at being stuck in traffic. In the end, the three-time world champion and his team-mate Bottas didn’t get close to the pace of the top three in their qualifying runs. Per Autosport Live, it was a frustrating afternoon for Mercedes:

As the rest of the drivers turned to long-run stints late in the session, the Silver Arrows didn’t string together many consecutive laps either.

Vettel, by contrast, paired his sensational lap with an excellent run late in FP2, suggesting Ferrari will have the pace to win this race on Sunday; the German was averaging around half-a-second faster per lap than the Mercedes duo on the soft compound.

Having used the morning to reacquaint himself with Formula One again, Button improved in the afternoon and was able to steer his McLaren into 12th spot.

FP1 Recap

The Formula One Twitter account provided the results from the first session at this iconic circuit:

Given the congested track and the technical demands placed on the drivers, getting off to a strong start in FP1 is arguably more important in Monaco than any other venue on the calendar.

As we can see, even some of the most experienced drivers in the field still struggle to get to grips with the street circuit:

After some tentative initial runs, Mercedes started to show their quality midway through the session. Valtteri Bottas was the first of the two Silver Arrows to usurp early leader Vettel, although Hamilton wasn't behind him for long, hammering in a 1:13.425.

As was the case in the previous round in Barcelona, there didn't seem to be too much separating Ferrari and Mercedes, though, as Vettel nudged ahead of Bottas to within a couple of tenths of Hamilton.

Dan Istitene/Getty Images

There were also some signs of life from Red Bull. Although Daniel Ricciardo complained to his engineers about the setup, Verstappen was looking feisty, as he joined Hamilton and Vettel in the top three with an impressive lap.

Further down the field, all eyes were on Button to see how he would fare on his return to the sport as a replacement for Alonso.

As relayed by the Autosport Live Twitter account, it took the veteran some time to get to grips with the new car design:

He did progress well throughout the session, though, getting plenty of laps under his belt as well as a respectable time of 1:14.954.