Vettel leads the way in the final practice session

F1 Grand Prix, GP Monaco, Monte Carlo Circuit

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel topped the timing-sheet ahead of the all-important qualifying session. The German driver went on to claim the best time with a 1:12.395 in front of his team-mate Kimi Räikkönen.

Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull continued to dominate the action on the narrow streets of Monaco. Ferrari and Mercedes went out onto the track pretty early into the session. The Italian’s SF70-H seemed to find the ideal working window for the tyres more easily then Mercedes.

Bottas seemed to struggle on his first run, but the Finn came alive on his second stint, but his deficit to the best time was still 0,435. Hamilton was the better Mercedes-man in the first part of the session, but the triple-world champion did not manage to find big improvements on his second set of ultrasoft tyres.

Red Bull went late into the action, completed a seemingly never-ending run on the first set of ultrasofts which hardly showed any degradation and both drivers could set their best time in the final laps of that first stint.

The only major incident was the one of Esteban Ocon who crashed his Force India into the barriers in the dying minutes of the session. The Frenchman brushed his right front tyre at the swimming pool chicane and eventually broke the steering arm. He then went straight into the Armco barriers at the exit. The incident triggered a virtual safety car period. Thanks to the incredibly fast work of the track marshalls, the drivers had a few minutes to practise at the end.

McLaren emerged strong in the session with a 10th place for Vandoorne and a 12th place for Button. Both drivers were consistently fast over the whole stretch of the session. However, the returnee Briton will get a 15-place grid penalty for multiple engine component changes which might mean a last-row start depite a possible strong qualifying performance.