FP1-
Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans was top of the timesheets for Formula E’s first session in Monaco this season, as the Kiwi looks for his first Formula E win here around the principality.
With a time of 1m30.414s he was almost three tenths clear of Envision’s Robin Frijns. Close behind Frijns was Evans’ teammate Nick Cassidy in third.
Track evolution here was big, as time kept tumbling, and the Jaguar powertrains looked like they show some pace, as well as Sebastien Buemi.
The session was Red Flagged around half way through the session as there was debris on the track, which was easily rectified as things went back to normal and underway.
NEOM McLaren’s Sam Bird, had a big moment down into Turn 1 with less than ten minutes of the session. He suffered a huge lock up going into Saint Devote, despite his best efforts, he made contact with the barriers on the right-hand side of his Gen3 car.
FP2-
Mitch Evans was on a roll, as he managed to go quickest in Free Practice 2 aswell. Not only that, but the top 2 remained the same, with Robin Frijns sticking his Envision car in second. With Pascal Wehrlein rounding out the top 3.
The biggest story though, was ahead of FP2, and it was Taylor Barnard making his Formula E race debut with NEOM McLaren! As Sam Bird had to miss the rest of the day, after fracturing his hand after the incident in FP1.
The Jaguar cars were continuing on with being fastest early on in the sessions, as Sebastien Buemi split the two/
Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara set a lovely lap to go top of the timesheets, with a 1m30.452s. However he was pushing too hard with a few minutes left of the session and ended up going to wide at Turn 1 and hit the barriers.
Qualifying-
It was a dramatic end to Group A qualifying, with lots of favourites hoping for their chance to progress into the Duels.
Mitch Evans continued his trend of finishing every Monaco session so far and was joined by Pascal Wehrlein, Maximilian Guenther and Antonio Felix da Costa. Envision’s Robin Frijns was knocked out by just 0.002s!
In Group B there were plenty of drivers improving on their lap time during the final flying laps, including Stoffel Vandoorne who managed to go quickest in his group. He progressed through to Quarter Finals, as well as his teammate Jean-Eric Vergne. Joining them was Nick Cassidy and Sebastien Buemi.
Both Jaguar drivers, failed to make the Duel finals. For Evans he had a lap time deleted for exceeding track limits, and Cassidy made a rare mistake where he clipped the wall.
But it was Pascal Wehrlein who took his third Julius Baer Pole Position of Season 10, where he navigated the challenging streets of Monaco!
The full top 10 are- P1: Wehrlein, P2: Vandoorne, P3: Cassidy, P4: Evans, P5: Vergne, P6: Buemi, P7: Da Costa, P8: Gunther, P9: Frijns and P10: Daruvala.
Round 8-
Wehrlein leapt away with a textbook launch to head Vandoorne and Cassidy through Sainte Devote, though by the end of Lap 1 Evans had made it past his Jaguar stablemate for third.
On lap 3, Vergne was able to make a move stick on Wehrlein for fourth, late on the brakes into the chicane. Meanwhile on lap 4, Wehrlein’s teammate da Costa got caught in the melee at the hairpin with an ERT clattering Buemi, which blocked the Porsche as the pack backed up.
Edo Mortara hit the wall in a big way a lap later. The Mahindra was squeezed out of position at the chicane, before Ticktum drew alongside through Tabac.
The Swiss-French-Italian wouldn’t give the spot up easily, looking to hand on to the ERT around the swimming pool but he caught a bucket of understeer and found the wall with some force.
The Green flag was flown on Lap 8, with Vandoorne leading Evans. On Lap 10, Rowland made super use of attack mode to jump from ninth to sixth.
Reigning champion, Jake Dennis was making great ground, ninth on lap 10. However, his progress would come to a swift end in contact with Frijns in the Tunnel – an unusual accident. A broken front wing required a pit stop, demoting Dennis to the back of he pack.
Jaguar’s strategy looked clear on lap 11, Evans bolted to a three-second gap, with Cassidy sitting in and backing up the pack, allowing Evans to take attack mode and extend his advantage to four seconds come lap 12.
On lap 16, Vandoorne and Vergne looked to be up to a similar scheme – the pair working through their ATTACK MODE activations while looking to hold track position.
Da Costa made more progress on lap 21, aggressively squeezing by Rowland for sixth at Mirabeau.
As the laps ticked down, the energy advantage was with the leader, some 0.5% up on Cassidy.
A late shunt for ABT CUPRA’s Nico Mueller at Rascasse saw the Safety Car make an appearance, with a couple of added laps to come to take us to a total of 31 and the green flag flying again came on lap 27.
Jaguar had plenty in their pocket to hold off the DS’ behind as Evans finally made it stick in Monaco heading home his teammate.
The full top 10 are- P1: Evans, P2: Cassidy, P3: Vandoorne, P4: Vergne, P5: Wehrlein, P6: Rowland, P7: Da Costa, P8: Fenestraz, P9: Gunther and P10: Nato.
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