Monaco FP2: Ricciardo way ahead chased by Mercedes duo

Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo got the best out of a revised Renault engine to power to the top of the timing screens in the second free practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix, lapping ove half a second quicker than second bestLewis Hamilton of Mercedes.

The session got underway with Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg setting the early pace with a time of 1:16.694 on supersoft tyres before Hamilton usurped his team-mate with a lap of 1:15.489, again set on supersofts.

Romain Grosjean lost control of his Haas on the exit of the tunnel and hitting the barriers on his right-hand side on the approach to the Nouvelle Chicane.

Fifteen minutes into the session Ricciardo began to show his hand by taking top spot with a lap of 1m15.315 on the ultrasoft tyre before shaving a further three tenths off that time on his next tour.

Rio Haryanto was the next to exit the session in a collision, with the Manor driver also losing control on the tunnel exit, though the Indonesian’s impact was considerably heavier than Grosjean’s. Haryanto was quickly on the radio to report himself uninjured, however.

The Mercededs duo eventually bolted on the ultrasoft tyres, and both Hamilton and Rosberg vaulted up the order, with Hamilton setting a best time of 1:15.213 to sit 0.2 of a second off Ricciardo's best. Rosberg was a further three tenths behind.

Ricciardo was clearly in no mood to give up the top spot, however, and he soon put himself out of reach with a best lap that made him the only driver to dip in the 1m14s bracket in the second session.

Fourth place went to Ricciardo’s Red Bull Racing team-mate Max Verstappen. The Spanish Grand Prix winner doesn’t have the upgraded Renault power unit at this event and he ended the session almost a second adrift of Ricciardo.

The young Dutchman ended up two tenths of a second clear of Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat, who was just over 1500ths of a second ahead of his team-mate Carlos Sainz.

Kimi Raikkonen finished seventh ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez on a difficult afternoon for Ferrari. The Finn was 1.4 seconds down on Ricciardo. Team-mate Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, was ninth quickest on an afternoon when had a spin at Mirabeau midway through the session, which caused rear wing damage, and then clipped the barrier at Ste Devote in the closing stages.

McLaren’s Jenson Button rounded out the top ten, with teammate Fernando Alonso a quarter second adrift in 12th .

Friday will be a break day for the F1 contingent before FP3 and qualifying on Saturday.