Monaco FP1: Ricciardo tops as Red Bull deliver on promise

The energy drinks outfit tried hard to play down the favourite status ahead of the race at the venue which most predicted would suit their car and so it did for starters.

Using the Pirelli pink band Hypersoft tyres, Ricciardo blitzed around the world's most famous street circuit in a best ever time of 1:12.126, a tenth and a bit quicker than Verstappen in the sister car.

The Dutchman had a minor excursion at St Devote, but FIA race stewards were investigating how he rejoined the track which may be deemed to be in an unsafe manner.

Three tenths down on the top time was Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes in third, while teammate Valtteri Bottas neglected to use the Hypersofts and ended the session seventh.

Nearly a second down on Ricciardo's best effort were the Ferrari duo of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, fourth and fifth on the timing screens.

Renault driver Carlos Sainz was best of the rest in sixth, albeit 1.3 seconds down on the benchmark lap time.

Sergio Perez was eighth in the Force India with Haas driver Romain Grosjean ninth despite missing at least half the session after scraping the wall and damaging the car.

Sergey Sirotkin impressed in the troublesome Williams to finish tenth, tagging the wall and suffering a flat tyre. He was eight tenths quicker than teammate Lance Stroll who was 18th.

Fernando Alonso suffered a brake issue on his McLaren after only five laps which kept him in the garage until the final ten minutes of the session.

Kevin Magnussen lost half an hour with a connector problem on his Haas, he was slowest of all.

Red Bull principal Christian Horner summed up, "Both drivers have got a good feel for the car, the car's working quite nicely, but it's only Thursday morning."

"We have had a competitive chassis all year and of course the straights are a bit shorter here, so that concertinas it all together," he added.