Verstappen slowed down by radiator leak

Max Verstappen was only able to cover 17 laps during Free Practice 2 of the Monaco Grand Prix, due to a leak on a radiator, which required replacement of the damaged part.

Because of this mishap, the Batavian, who had separated the Mercedes on the EL1 timesheet and barely 59 thousandths behind Lewis Hamilton, fell to 6th place during the second runs, almost a second from the Thursday benchmark established by the Briton.

Verstappen doubts that Red Bull can really go and tickle the Silver Arrows; on the other hand he openly targets the scalp of Ferrari, not really at the party at the opening of the Monaco weekend.

« The pace is there but I think it will be hard to put Mercedes under pressure because they are still too fast, confided the Red Bull driver. On the other hand, we can reduce the gap and if we are 3rd on the grid, that will already be a good thing ». 

On board the other Honda-powered RB15, Pierre Gasly took advantage of his teammate's technical glitches to get ahead of him in the EL2 standings. The gap with Mercedes, more than eight tenths, remains significant, but the Frenchman was above all satisfied with the changes made to his Red Bull between the two free sessions on Thursday. 

In the morning, the Rouennais was in fact more than a second behind the Flèches d’Argent and had a little scare coming out of the ultra-fast sequence of the Swimming Pool. Like Verstappen, Gasly is targeting a place on the second row of the starting grid. 

« It was a good day, we built the two sessions well, he declared when taking stock of his first day on the track. We are happy with the changes made to the car between the two sessions. I felt a little better. There is still work to do but overall it was a productive day. This morning, it was a bit of a sport coming out of the swimming pool because it goes by quickly there. I found myself with almost the maximum amount of steering wheel, to counter-steer. Fortunately, it passed and we were able to work well ».