Ferrari tyre fiasco ruins Ricciardo’s Monaco Grand Prix

by Stella Walker Digital Marketing

It all started so well for Daniel Ricciardo at the Monaco Grand Prix, but by the end of the day his bad luck at Renault had reached new lows.

Starting from a surprisingly strong sixth on the grid, the reigning Monaco champion launched up the outside of Kevin Magnussen’s Haas to snatch fifth position.

Ahead of him the big three: two Mercedes, a Red Bull and a Ferrari.

And that was about it.

By lap three Ricciardo was already almost five seconds behind the car in fourth, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. By lap five he was 11 seconds behind and holding up the rest of the field.

The plan appeared to be to take care of his tyres and hope for a safety car, but when that moment finally came on lap nine it resulted in the Australian’s race being run.

Indeed the only driver who had worse luck on the weekend was Ferrari’s Charles LeClerc, who had started from 16th after a team snafu in qualifying and shredded a tyre on a safety barrier while trying to push his way through the field.

Panicked, frustrated and desperate to get into the pits LeClerc ran the length of the circuit trailing rubber and smashing the underside of his car – the debris clean-up requiring a safety car.