F1: Daniel Ricciardo Takes Pole At Monaco GP, Vettel & Hamilton To Start 2nd & 3rd

Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo will be starting the F1 Monaco Grand Prix on pole tomorrow, beating Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes'Lewis Hamilton. The Australian topped the first two stages of qualifying, as teammate Max Verstappen couldn't participate in qualifying after crashing in the practice session earlier in the day, warranting a gearbox change. Ricciardo lapped the circuit in a time of 1m10.810s on his first run in Q3, which also remained his best despite a second attempt in the final sector.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel lapped the street circuit in 1m11.039s, 0.229s behind Ricciardo; while Lewis Hamilton, who seemed to be in close contention against Ricciardo at one point, lost time in the final stages of Q3 and finished within half a second of the Red Bull behind Vettel.

(A victory at Monaco will be Lewis Hamilton's third consecutive win this season)

Starting fourth tomorrow will be Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari, just 0.034s off Hamilton, while Valtteri Bottas was a second behind Raikkonen and will start fifth.

Force India's Esteban Ocon took a hard fought sixth, with the bottom five Q3 drivers covered by just 0.160s. Following Ocon were McLaren's Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz of Renault; Sergio Perez of Force India Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly completing the top 10.

Renault's Nico Hulkenberg was the fastest driver in Q2 and will be starting 11th, a tenth of second behind Gasly. Meanwhile, McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne will be starting 12th after being the sixth fastest in the initial runs. Williams' driver Sergey Sirotkin will start 13th followed by Sauber's Charles LeClerc in 14th place. Both drivers qualified eighth and ninth during Q1. Haas driver Romain Grosjean was 15th, 0.014s behind Leclerc, but will start three places behind on the grid following his Spanish GP penalty.

(Sebastian Vettel currently sits second in the 2018 F1 championship standings)

The bottom spots are taken by Torro Rosso's Brendon Hartley in 16th, and was the fastest driver to be eliminated out of Q1. Marcus Ericsson of Sauber was 17th ahead of Lance Stroll of Williams, while Kevin Magnussen takes the second last place, ahead of the Verstappen.

The Monaco GP is the second ever pole position for Daniel Ricciardo, with the first one also interestingly taken at Monaco in 2016. With one win to his name this season, will Ricciardo be able to bring another home? That should certainly keep the fans of the Australian driver excited.