Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo finally won the Monaco Grand Prix he should have won a few years earlier but to give you an idea of how much of a snoozer of a race it was, the first six finishers finished in order of how they started – with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel taking second and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton taking the third and final podium position.
Not only did the top six – that includes Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in fourth, Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas in fifth and Force India’s Esteban Ocon in sixth – begin the race that way, they also stayed that way for the first 12 laps of the race and after various pit stops, kept that order for more than half of the race. Needless to say, the only drama in the race was whether Ricciardo could win with only six of his eight gears operational [turns out that was overhyped and offset by tire wear issues from Vettel and Hamilton] and how many places Ricciardo’s error-prone teammate, Max Verstappen, could make up after beginning the race in last place due to a crash in the final practice session [he got up to ninth]. Other than that, it was the usual processional the race has nearly always been, with the top three holding those spots for the last 25 laps of the race.
With the victory, Ricciardo moves into third place in the 2018 Formula One driver standings with 72 points while Vettel has 96 points in second and closes the gap to Hamilton in first with 110 points.
2018 Monaco Grand Prix Top 10
1] Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull
2] Sebastian Vettel Ferrari
3] Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
4] Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari
5] Valtteri Bottas Mercedes
6] Esteban Ocon Force India
7] Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso
8] Nico Hülkenberg Renault
9] Max Verstappen Red Bull
10] Carlos Sainz Jr. Renault