Ferrari driver and Formula One championship leader Sebastian Vettel has obliterated his own lap record at the circuit de Monaco in Saturday morning practice to again be the fastest man on track ahead of afternoon qualifying.

The 29-year-old four-time world champion broke his own lap record late in the session, clocking 1:12.395 to eclipse the time he set on Thursday by three-tenths of a second.

While Vettel had all the pace, Australian Red Bull star Daniel Ricciardo struggled to reclaim the pace he had on Thursday and had a moment late in the session when he misjudged the entry to a turn and parked his Red Bull down the escape road.

Before that, Ricciardo appeared to be on track for a hot time but was held up by traffic as his lap was coming to a close.

Vettel, though, had no peer. Not even fellow Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen could get close to him, the Finn three-tenths down on his German teammate in second.

In all, four drivers produced laps under the one minute 13 second mark but they did not include Ricciardo, whose best lap, a 1:13.392, was only good enough for sixth and almost one second off the pace of Vettel.

His Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen was among those who broke the one minute 13 second mark along with both Ferrari drivers and rising Mercedes star Valtteri Bottas.

Bottas’ teammate Lewis Hamilton again struggled with his Mercedes and was only fifth fastest at the end of the session.

Arguably the surprise of the morning was the pace shown by Toro Rosso drivers Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz, who were hot on Ricciardo’s tail.

There was one significant incident in the session when Eseteban Ocon put his Force India car into the wall at the swimming pool with eight minutes left. The Frenchman clipped the wall and then bounced off the kerb before hitting the fence.

Ricciardo will need a better performance in qualifying if he is to be a chance of winning the Monaco Grand Prix after last year’s costly team error in the pits.

In the past decade, only one driver has won the race from behind the front row.

Lewis Hamilton did it 2008 and 2016 (both times, he qualified third) and just one driver has won it from second – Hamilton’s then Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg in 2015.

Qualifying begins at 2:00pm on Saturday (10pm AEST).